The Nova League Chronicles
by gregginator54
Summary: Andrew, a Pokemon trainer from Hoenn who has journeyed across the world, collected many Pokemon, and taken on many challenges, takes on his newest challenge: The Nova League. This is sure to be a long and difficult journey for our hero.
1. Intro: Andrew

The Nova League Chronicles

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Pokemon is owned and licensed by Nintendo and comes from the great mind of Satoshi Sajiri****. The only thing I own here is the characters that come from my brain and the story.**

Introduction: Andrew

Hello! The name's Andrew. I'm your typical everyday Pokémon trainer. I'm rather tall, about 6ft 3in, with rectangular black glasses, green eyes, and messy brown hair. I always wear my typical blue jeans with a red shirt with a blue zigzag stripe across the center and my typical black sneakers. You may know me from my many league challenges. Yes, it was me that placed second in the Unova conference. I also placed fourth in the Johto League and top ten in the Sinnoh league. Don't ask me about my Hoenn of Kanto league challenges though… those didn't end very well at all… I am currently setting out for a new Pokémon League challenge known as the Nova League. It is supposed to be very exclusive, and only the top trainers are invited to participate in it. The boat ride is taking a while, so in that time, let me tell you about myself:

I was born in Lavaridge Town in the Hoenn Region. My dad is a ranger for the Jagged Pass and my mom is a tour guide at the volcano. When it turned ten, I was sent to Professor Birch to receive my first Pokémon. If you couldn't guess by now, I did, in fact, chose Torchic to be my first ever Pokémon. I then journeyed throughout the Hoenn region, collecting my team and winning badges. However, only two Pokémon I collected from Hoenn, Blaziken and Gardevoir have stayed with me in my final team. The other four, Mightyena, Ninjask, Flygon, and Swellow, are all at my family's ranch in the Hoenn region.

After failing to even place in the Hoenn League, I journeyed to Kanto. Once I earned all eight of my badges with a completely new team, something happened. I was at the Indigo League check-in when four of my Pokémon were stolen from me. Well, I just could NOT let that fly, so, I went after the thief and, when I came back, I missed the deadline. I was upset. Devastated in fact. I sent my five Pokémon from the Kanto region, Lapras, Gengar, Sandslash, Fearow, and Exeggutor, to live on my family's ranch as well.

After this major devastation, I moved west to the Johto region. I took on the Gym Leaders there and collected five new Pokémon as well: Ampharos, Donphan, Espeon, Skarmory, and Ursarang. With these five and my trusty Blaziken, I made it all the way to fourth place in the Johto League challenge. I have kept Ampharos with me for the Nova League, like I have with Gardevoir and Blaziken, and the rest are at the ranch.

Next came Sinnoh. Here, I captured Drifblim, Garchomp, Roserade, Staraptor, and Luxray. This, to date, would have to be the most challenging region I have been to. The gyms were so difficult and I'm surprised I even made it in time for the Sinnoh League. I was even more surprised that I made the top ten in this league. As of right now, Drifblim, Roserade, and Luxray are at my ranch and Garchomp and Staraptor are with me for the Nova League.

My final, and most successful, challenge was the Unova Conference. As with the other regions, I captured five new Pokémon, Jellicent, Bisharp, Reuniclus, Scolipede, and Garbodor. Together, we conquered the gyms of Unova and tackled the Unova Conference tournament. We placed second. We lost to a trainer named Jared, a very tough opponent indeed, especially with his Hydreigon and Volcarona… As of now, I took Bisharp with me to the Nova League, and the others are… Well, you know.

Well, that's my story in a nutshell. In case you didn't put it together, I am taking on the Nova League challenge with Blaziken, Gardevoir, Ampharos, Staraptor, Garchomp, and Bisharp. I'm hoping that they will work well together. This is bound to be a long, and difficult journey, so I am writing this to chronicle my adventures there. As of right now, I can finally see the Nova League on the horizon, so this means that the challenge is approaching fast.


	2. IMPORTANT NOTICE!

**IMPORTANT NOTICE!**

Hello readers and fans! I would like to announce that if anybody would like to submit an OC for my story: Pokemon: The Nova League Chronicles. here's please PM me or leave a comment on the story with the following information (I'll use my character, Andrew as an example):

Name/Age/Gender: Andrew/17/Male

Description: Tall (about 6ft 3in), messy brown hair, black rectangular glasses, green eyes. He always wears blue jeans, a red t-shirt with a blue zig-zag across the center, and black sneakers.

Home Region/Town: Lavaridge Town, Hoenn

Background: Andrew was born in Lavaridge Town in the Hoenn region. He has traveled to all five regions, and has placed well in the Johto, Sinnoh, and Unova. He did not place in the Hoenn League and was unable to compete in the Kanto League finals. He has a few older siblings who are said to far outclass him, something that he hates. His main goal is to beat all of his siblings in battle.

Pokemon (12): (Main) Ampharos, Gardevoir, Staraptor, Bisharp, Garchomp, Blaziken

(Back-up) Lapras, Gengar, Reuniclus, Donphan, Luxray, and Ninjask

I will accept anything. Area leaders for each type (except Dragon, I have that one covered), friends, participants in the tournament, Rivals, region specific trainers (Such as a trainer who uses strictly pokemon from Sinnoh). I will do my best to incorporate as many as I can :) I hope to receive a lot of good characters fom y'all, oh and remember NO LEGENDARIES! I only have two characters that use legendaries, and they both have specific reasons for it. Legendaries are just OP and they don't fit with the story I have planned except with those two characters. I can't wait to see what characters you guys give me! :D


	3. Chapter 1: Welcome to the Nova League

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Nova League

The boat pulled into the port around 7:30 p.m. About time, too. It had been three weeks since the ferry left from Snowpoint City in Sinnoh and, as much as I love the sea breeze and the sound of the ocean, three weeks waiting for what was going to be the most difficult challenge of my life on a boat was just unsettling. I really couldn't enjoy the cruise as much as I could have because of the sheer anticipation of what lied ahead.

"Only the top 1000 trainers in the world not ranked as a gym leader or elite 4 member are selected to partake in the Nova League. Congratulations, you have been chosen. " That is what the letter that invited me to the Nova League read when I first opened it up. I had never even thought of myself as a truly outstanding trainer, let alone one of the top 1000 worldwide. I guess my Unova league challenge must have really impressed the people who selected me. I decided to test myself and my Pokémon by taking on this new league challenge. I figured, why not? It'll be fun.

After the boat pulled in, I was finally able to get off the boat with the 36 other people that I had come with on the ship, the _S.S. Snover._ I walked off the bridge with my small amount of luggage, we were told to pack only about a week's worth of clothes and that we will have food and toiletries provided for us. The first thing I did was get into a long check-in line in order to register myself for the league.

"Your letter, please." said a short man in a raspy, almost frog-like voice.

I took out my letter and handed it to him. The man inspected it thoroughly, stamped it with a seal of approval, and gave it back to me. He then told me to register twelve of my Pokémon in the system at the next gate. Twelve? Crap, I only had six on me.

It turned out that, as I went to register, the rules were the same as a normal league challenge: we could only have six Pokémon with us. I learned that the other six were to be used as backups in case something happened to our Pokémon. I registered Staraptor, Bisharp, Ampharos, Gardevoir, Garchomp and Blaziken as my main six. I then thought long and hard about which six to use as my backups. I eventually decided to use Lapras, Gengar, Reuniclus, Luxray, Donphan, and Ninjask as my backups. It wasn't an easy decision, but based on how well I knew my Pokémon, I figured these twelve were best suited for the rigorous challenge ahead. When I finished registering my twelve Pokémon, the short man came and handed me a badge case. I looked at the badge case and inspected it very carefully. It was much bulkier than the standard badge case. I opened it up and saw a lot more than eight spots for badges. Seventeen, to be precise. Seventeen badges. That would be one for each Pokémon type there is. Crap.

When I was completely done with registration, I obtained a new trainer card. This one had my picture (a bad one at that) with my six main Pokémon on top and my six alternates on the bottom placed against an orange and black flame design. My name was in the top left corner and my home region was in the left corner. The back had the same design and it had a bar that was used if I ever needed to swipe the card. I took and inspected my trainer card as I began my way down a dimly lit hallway. I followed the hallway until I came to a huge stadium.

The stadium was larger than any other stadium I had ever seen. There was 360⁰ seating and It appeared to be able to seat about 100,000 people, more if people weren't concerned with comfort. The center of the arena, the battle area, had the standard poké ball logo, but it appeared as if it could open up to allow access to something. On the far side, furthest away from me, at least, a large mass of people were gathered. I made my way over to this crowd to see what was going on.

As I got close, I could see a man with short, clean-cut black hair and a black suit on. He wore dark sunglasses and a black bowtie. He was on a raised platform so that he could stand above the rest of the people. In his hand, he held a microphone. However, the man just stood there with very good posture and waited, never once moving the microphone towards his mouth.

After about an hour, one last person, a girl in a biker like outfit, came in. When she had finally found her place amongst the crowd, the man on the platform moved the microphone to his mouth and began to speak for the first time.

"I'm glad to see that every single one of the 1000 hand-picked trainers have shown up." he said. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tom, and I will be your MC for the final round of the tournament, when and if you make it there!" Tom exclaimed.

"But before any of that, I also need to explain the rules for the Nova League to all of you. First rule: You must find and defeat all seventeen area leaders of this league. Upon defeat, each leader will hand out an new, unique badge to you that is different from the badges of other leagues and conferences. If you lose, you are disqualified, there are no rematches in the Nova League."

Well, crap. It took me so many tries to defeat several gym leaders during my travels. I remember I even had to face Claire of Blackthorn City about four times before finally winning the badge. And then I faced Tate and Liza of Mossdeep City a total of seven times… I hope I won't have to repeat something like that ever again.

"Second: we will randomly select which area you go to. That area has the leader at a certain place within it. You must find a defeat this leader to earn your badge. You will have one week to do this for each area."

Okay, so there wouldn't be the obvious gym in the middle of a city or town. This made it more of a challenge. I did like the concept of the Hide and Seek method of going up against the gym leaders, but I was still worried about how I would beat seventeen area leaders all on my first try.

"Third: The consequences of cheating a very severe. Save yourself the trouble, and just don't do it."

That rule was very understandable. I remember that they caught the person who initially beat me in my Unova Conference challenge cheating. He had bribed the ref of our match to be in his favor. When this was discovered, he was disqualified, and took his place in the finals.

"And finally: You have registered twelve of your Pokémon. You should know this from hearing it at the check-in counter, but I will repeat it. You can only use the six you have registered for your main team, the other six are strictly for emergencies, such as one of your Pokémon becoming unable to fight further in the league. "

Four rules? Four basic rules? That was it? Wow, okay, this wasn't as much to internalize as I thought it would be. The only problem would have to be the no rematch part. That part had me very nervous, but I was determined not to lose to any of these area leaders. Not a single one of them.

"Now…" Tom said "If you will all please get in ten even lines, we will assign you to one of seventeen regions. And remember, the Nova League is like nothing any of you have ever faced. It is designed for only the top of the top trainers. The area leaders are all prodigies of their specific type. So, be warned trainers, what lies ahead is a challenge beyond any you have and ever will face. You may prevail, you may not. You may discover something about yourselves through this challenge. Something shocking or something you would have never known otherwise."

As Tom walked off the stage after his disturbing last message to us, the mass of 1000 people began to evenly distribute themselves into ten lines. I got in the very back of the ninth line. I was incredibly nervous as the line moved closer to where we would be assigned an area. I had finally made it to the front of the line. I swiped my trainer card and then the name of the area I was assigned to appeared on a screen.

Nova Castle

"Looks like you're 'outta luck kid" said the man at running the assignment gate.

"Wh-Why!" I stuttered.

"That there region is run by 'ol Draco." Said the man. "And he ain't no pushover either. I know they says that all them leaders are 'sposed to be on the same level, but I heard that ol' Draco went an' outclassed them all. He runs a team of them Dragon types, and those there dragons are mighty tough. Not easy to beat. Even the Ice region leader can't go an' beat 'ol Draco at his game."

As I stepped out of the arena, I looked to the west and saw a huge, golden castle with a large stone wall around it. That was my destination. I nervously walked toward it, the words of the man still head, haunting me as I began my hopeless journey.

**Well, here is the first chapter. I hope to have the second one up soon, and trust me, this chapter may not have had much action in it, but now that I've introduced the basic concepts for the story, expect the action to pick up. Be on the look out for Chapter 2 "The Wall"**


	4. Chapter 2: The Wall

**Chapter 2: The Wall**

I looked up at the towering structure before me. It was large, tall, and gray. It was made entirely out of stone. I walked around the circumference of the wall until I saw the sun beginning to set. I had found no way past the wall. This wall, which stood between me and the first Area Leader and badge for my Nova League challenge, seemed to be impenetrable. _Seemed._

As it grew darker on my first day of the challenge, I began to ponder about this wall. It was big, it was stone, and it stood between me and my first challenge. Not a very good combination of things, but I was determined. I finally decided, then, that I was going to get over this wall one way or another before the end of the day.

"Go Staraptor!"  
"Star!"

My large gray bird with a jagged red-tipped crest spread its wings as it let out a cry, preparing itself for flight. I knew exactly what we needed to do, and so did my trusty Staraptor.

"Alright Staraptor, here's what we're gonna do. I'm going to hop on your back, and then we're gonna fly across the wall. Got it?"  
"Star!" my Staraptor cried with affirmation.

I jumped onto Staraptor's back. He prepared himself as he spread his wings proudly.

"Aaaaaaaannnddddd LAUNCH!" I shouted. At my command, Staraptor beat his mights wings and we began to move upward.

Staraptor began to pick up speed as he lunged upward in order to get us up faster. The wind blew harder and colder in my face the faster we ascended. Well, hey, it was better than the normal weather in my home country of Hoenn, but it did get a little unbearable after a while. And there's another thing: This flight was taking FOREVER. Like, what? I know for a fact my Staraptor is a very capable flier and to be a very strong Pokémon in general, but we had been going up for at least ten minutes… Was the wall really that big?

I soon found out the hard way. After about ten more minutes of chilly evening flight, I was finally able to get on top of the wall. I leaped off of Staraptor and touch downed on the top of the wall. As soon as I landed safely, Staraptor, still over the edge, gave in to exhaustion and fell. And he fell. And fell.

"Staraptor! Return!" I shouted in desperation as I pulled out his poké ball and recalled him. Just in time, too. I really did not want to lose Staraptor, he's beyond invaluable on my team.

I had finally made it to the top of the wall. I decided to give Staraptor a rest, I was not about to make him fly me to the ground on the other side, he was way too tired for that. It was getting late, but I honestly did not want to spend my first night on top of a giant wall that wasn't very wide. I needed to find an easier way down. I decided to walk the circumference of the wall again, only this time, from the top instead of the bottom.

Two Hours later

This wall is HUGE. It seriously did take me two hours to walk around about 3/4ths of it. I was nearing the end, when that's when I saw it: A set of stairs from the top to the inside of the wall. I ran to the stairs so that I could get down and finally get some rest for the night, when suddenly, the weirdest thing happened. A purple monkey with two tails, each with what looked like a large, swelled hand with three red-tipped fingers at the end, did a back flip over me and stood directly in my path, blocking me from getting to the stairs.

"Good job, Ambipom." Said a calm voice. "You cut him off, perfect, now he has to battle us!"

A boy about my age came up behind the purple monkey with a smirk on his face. He had on a black hoodie with it zipped up halfway and the hood up, a pair of simple blue jeans with rips all over the, including a rather large rip where his right knee is, a black and blue zigzag t-shirt, and dark blue tennis shoes. His style was very dark and… well, Johto-ish. Yeah, it was quite obvious this guy was from Johto. If his clothes didn't give it away, his accent did.

"The name's Marcus" said the stranger "And I challenge you to a three on three battle!"

"Well, Marcus…" I said "It looks like you're not giving me any other options, so I accept your challenge. The name's Andrew."

"Well then, let's begin. I'll start things off with my Ambipom since he's already out."

"Come on out Ampharos!"

I pressed the button on a green poké ball with four red lines on the top and a yellow one in the center of the other lines. It was a friend ball that I used when I was in Johto and I used it to capture a Mareep. A beam of red light shot out of it and began to take form. My tall, yellow Pokémon with a long slender neck, a red orb on its tail and a smaller one on its forehead, and black rings around its tail, neck, and conical ears extended his stubby arms excitedly, ready for the battle to come.

"Ambipom, use Double Hit!"

"Ampharos, use Charge Beam!"

The Ambipom came in close and began to swing its two tails at my Ampharos. Ampharos skillfully dodged it as the jewel on its forehead and tail began to glow. Moments later, he fired a powerful beam of electricity from the jewel on its forehead that hit Ambipom square in the chest, sending it flying. Ambipom, however, quickly recovered and was back on its feet soon and was beginning to go in for another attack.

"Ampipom, retaliate with Shadow Claw!"

Ambipom's tail-hands began to glow with a shadowy aura. It then charged at Ampharos and swung its two tails, hitting Ampharos from both sides. Ampharos seemed very injured by this attack, but still able to fight.

"Ampharos, use Signal Beam!"

Both of Ampharos's jewels began to glow as he began charging up power once more. Ambipome continued its assault with its shadow imbued hands. Ampharos then fired a rainbow beam from its forehead jewel that connected with Ambipom, ending its attack and sending it flying once more. Ambipom landed with a loud thud. It was unable to move. Ampharos then collapsed due to the exhaustion of the battle.

"Return Ambipom." Marcus said as his Ambipom was enveloped in a red light and then brought to an orange topped poké ball with yellow circles on the orange, a quick ball.

"Good job Ampharos, return." I said as a separate red light enveloped my Ampahros and brought it back to its friend ball.

I began to think about who I could possibly use next for this battle. Staraptor was out of the question. I'm sure he was still tired from our long flight up the wall. Ampharos had put up a great fight. He was really good in this battle. He has grown quite a lot since our challenge of the Johto League. I really needed to pick another Pokémon. I wasn't about to use Blaziken, my ace. I guess I should send out someone else. I reached for my belt and then picked a ball. It was an all white poké ball with a red line around the center. A premier ball.

"Go Gardevoir!" I shouted as I threw the ball, releasing a red beam of light that began to take the form a very womanly figure, and then bounced right back to me.

"Gar!" My Gardevoir chimed enthusiastically in, ready for battle. She was a rather tall Pokémon that was very slender and womanly in appearance. She has what appears to be short, green hair that curls at the end and in front of her eyes, which are red. Her arms are green and she appears to be wearing an elegant white ballroom gown as she floats.

"Hehe, well, not bad, not bad at all. I choose you, Noctowl!"

"Hoo!" The brown owl Pokémon with large, striking red eyes and cream colored feathers that appeared to form a pair of horns on its head stretched its dark brown wings widely, as if to intimidate my Pokémon.

"Gardevoir, use Future Sight, now!"  
"Noctowl, Air Slash, GO!"

Gardevoir closed her eyes and began to concentrate. She sent a beam of blue psychic energy into the sky that disappeared quickly. Noctowl charged towards Gardevoir. Its wings were glowing and when it got close, it slashed its wings, creating blades of air that made their way towards Gardevoir. Gardevoir could not dodge because she had barely finished setting up her future sight attack. The air blades hit her and knocked her on her back. She levitated back up slowly, trying to shake off the last attack, but the attack had done quite a bit of damage to her.

"Gardevoir, use Psychic!"

"Noctowl, begin charging your attack!"

Gardevoir enveloped Noctowl in a psychic aura before it could charge whatever attack that was. She then used her mind to lift the Noctowl up high into the air, and then drop it quickly, causing it major damage by doing so. Noctowl got up, slowly, covered in a silver aura. I guess it did have time to charge up its attack…

"Now Noctowl, Sky Attack!"  
Noctowl came at Gardevoir fast, still covered in the silver aura. It rammed into Gardevoir hard, sending her flying, knocking her down. She was heavily damaged, but still able to battle.

"Charge up another one Noctowl!"  
"No, Gardevoir, Hypnosis!"  
Gardevoir let out a pulse from its mind as it stared intently at Noctowl. Noctowl began to cloak itself in the silver aura once again, but as it did so, the pulse from Gardevoir hit it, causing it lull into a deep slumber.

"Now, finish this off with Dream Eater!"  
A red aura formed around Gardevoir's hand as it shot out and enveloped the Noctowl, draining it of its power. Noctowl remained asleep, now unable to continue the battle. Using Dream Eater allowed Gardevoir to recover slightly from the battle, preparing it for the next and hopefully final round of this battle. A separate red beam enveloped Noctowl as Marcus recalled his second Pokémon.

"Well, well, well, you are very skilled indeed. I didn't think I'd have to use _him._"

"What could you be talking about? Come on and send out your final Pokémon."

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you about the sheer might of this one." Marcus said as he pulled out what appeared to be a standard poké ball, but it appeared to have a yellow logo on it. "You do know what type of poké ball this is, don't you?" He asked, chuckling.

"Well yeah, of course, that's a Sport Ball used in the Johto Bug Catching Contest, but what is the point in asking me…." I began to ramble, but then it dawned on me. He was bragging about a Pokémon he caught in the bug catching contest. "No… You can't have caught one… If you're bragging about this, that means you must have… and evolved it too. Crap!"

"That's right, I did catch a Scyther and I did evolve it! Go, Scizor! Come on out and use your Bullet Punch!"

As soon as the red light from the Sport ball disappeared, there was a red streak, and the, just like that, I heard a loud thud. There it was, a giant red ant-like creature, standing on two legs, with two huge pincers that had what appeared to be a very intimidating yellow eye on them for his claws. One of the pincers was losing a silver glow, a result of the attack that Marcus commanded it do as he sent it out. The glowing pincer was pressed harshly against Gardevoir's stomach. She went down instantly.

I recalled Gardevoir to her Premier ball. I reached to my belt. I wasn't going to use Blaziken. I was confident I could win this one without a fire type. That, and I really wanted to save him for the Area Leader. No, I needed someone else on my team that was capable. Staraptor was still down from the flight. Ampharos and Gardeoir both fought intensely in this battle. I'm not going to lie though, that Bullet Punch as he sent out his Pokémon was a pretty dick move. And cheap. Really cheap. Oh well, I couldn't help but admire how powerful and how cool looking his Scizor was. I could tell it was well trained. I would really need a strong Pokémon for this one. It was down to Garchomp or Bisharp. After a few moments, I finally decided. I reached for the Ultra Ball at my belt, pressed the button in the center to expand it, and tossed it.

"Go Bisharp!" I yelled as the red light formed into a humanoid shape. When fully formed, a human-like figure with a red helmet with a golden double headed axe on top, black face, torso and arms, what appeared to be red shoulder pads, red legs, and a pair of what appeared to be white boots and white gloves. It had two white rings around and protruding from his torso. He gave Marcus's Scizor a fierce look.

"Scizor, attack with X-Scissor"  
"Bisharp, Use Night Slash"

Scizor crossed his arms in an x form and began to charge at Bisharp. Bisharp's blades on his arms began to glow a dark purple as he began to charge towards Scizor. Both Scizor and Bisharp are powerful dual steel-type Pokémon who specialize in attacking, so this was bound to be a good and interesting fight.

Both Pokémon slashed at each other with their attacks, both damaging the other. As if reading their trainers' minds, both Scizor and Bisharp turned to each other and unleashed the same attack on the other once again. They continued doing this. Scizor with his X-Scissor. Bisharp with his Night Slash. In due time, both Pokémon were very beaten up from receiving damage from one attack over and over again. But it didn't look like either one was about to let the other win. Scizor prepared his X-Scissor once more. Bisharp prepared his Night Slash. Both Marcus and myself were determined to win, but we knew at this rate, this battle would end in a tie.

As Scizor and Bisharp closed in on each other, attacks ready, Scizor suddenly froze. Scizor just stood there, completely still, and then, just as suddenly, fell to the ground with a mighty thud. The Future Sight attack had hit him dead on.

"Wh-WHAT!?" Marcus shouted in disbelief as his mighty and well-trained Pokémon fell. "How!? Why!? WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!?"

"Future Sight" I said relieved. "Gardevoir's Future Sight finally decided to take effect, and I won because of it!"

"Awww man!" Marcus said in disbelief "I knew you had to be good for even being in this league in the first place, but damn dude, I didn't expect you to use that Future Sight. TO be honest, I completely forgot about it… Man I shoulda used my Dark –type… Ugh, but no use dwelling on what I should've done. You're good, kid, real good."  
"Kid?" I said, mockingly, "You and I are around the same age AND I just beat you, yet you have the nerve to call me 'Kid'? I told you, it's Andrew."

"Haha, okay, okay, Andrew, you're an outstanding trainer."  
"Well, thanks Marcus. You are really superb too. You raised that Scizor so well. Scizors are supposed to be amongst the most difficult bug-types to raise. "  
"Thanks… But Scizor isn't the only tough Pokémon I raised. I'll admit, I did take it pretty easy raising Noctowl, but Ambipom was an incredible challenge due to having to teach it Double Hit. Not to mention, my other three Pokémon are pretty tough ones to raise too."

"Seriously!? I wanna see your team!" I really did, I was excited

"Tell ya what, Andrew. You and me, let's stick together for a while. At least for this castle. And by doing so, you'll get to see my other three Pokémon, and I'll get to see your other two."  
"Yeah! That sounds like a great idea and—H-hey! I only used three of my Pokémon in that battle! I have three others that you didn't see, so you'll be seeing three more Pokémon, not two!" I exclaimed. Was he berating me as a trainer? Even after I had beaten him?

"Hahahahahaha" He laughed. "Oh calm down! Saw you fly up here on your Staraptor. It was because of that sight that I decided to challenge you! I assumed that, since your Staraptor was so strong to be able to carry you all the way to the top of this wall, that you must have other great Pokémon, too. And boy was I right. I also wanted to test my team against a strong team to see if they were ready for this whole Nova League Challenge thing… But it looks like we'll be needing a bit more training before we'll get far in this league."

"Oooooooooohhhhhh…" I said, relieved by his answer "Well that makes sense. But, now I have another question…"

"Go ahead, ask away!"  
"Marcus, how did you get up here? Your Noctowl didn't seem tired from flying up the height of the wall, and after seeing you in battle, you are most defiantly not a mono-type trainer, so how did you get up here?"

"Well, that's simple, I used that set of stairs over there" Marcus said as he pointed behind me.

I looked down to see the area where I had started out my first walk around the circumference of this wall, and there was a set of stone stairs leading from the bottom of the outside of the wall to the top of the wall. HOW DID I MISS THAT!?

**A/N: Well, here's the anticipated second chapter of The Nova League Chronicles! I hope you guys like it. Please, when you review it, tell me what I can do to make it better and critique it. I want to make it more interesting for you guys! Also, I'm still accepting OCs… I haven't gotten any yet… Just submit them to me by putting it in the reviews or PM it to me, I will gladly accept anything you guys give me! I seriously hope you guys are enjoying this story so far, be on the lookout for the next chapter! :)**


	5. Chapter 3: Mysterious Intruders

Chapter 3: Mysterious Intruders

"So there I was, in the middle of my Johto League challenge. Scizor had been taken out, as had my four other Pokémon. It was just me and Aipom. Well, at that moment, as Aipom went up against my opponent's final Pokémon, a fierce looking Houndoom, he finally did it. Aipom mastered the move Double Hit. After he used it successfully against that Houndoom, he evolved right then and there, into the much more powerful and much faster Ambipom."

As Marcus and I walked through the field of the castle after our battle on top of the wall, we began to tell each other stories about our journeys. He had just finished telling me about how he got his Aipom to evolve into an Ambipom during his Johto League championship match, causing him to win the whole tournament and become a certified Johto Champion. It was very late at night now, almost midnight, in fact. We were trying to make our way to the castle in hopes that there would be rooms for us to sleep in. I really didn't want to sleep in the courtyard when there was a perfectly good castle to find a room in.

"That is really cool! I actually think I might have seen that match on TV. Have I told you about what happened while I was in Kanto?"

"No, you didn't, what happened?"

"Well, I had obtained all my gym badges and gone to the Pokémon League. I had been waiting in line after traveling through Victory Road. Not going to lie, Kanto's Victory Road was so much more difficult than the ones in Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh, but was a cakewalk compared to the one in Unova. Anyways, I was waiting in line to register, but then, I guy wearing all black with a huge red R on his shirt came and took my three of my Pokémon. Well, I was NOT about to let that slide, so I chased him. He fled back into Victory Road, much to my dismay. I followed him, and eventually found him on the bottom level of Kanto's Victory Road. As I confronted he said 'I am from Team Rocket! Our goal is to rule the world, and reach that goal, we will steal every Pokémon so that no trainer can challenge us!' He was basically talking nonsense. I know the legend of Red, who single-handedly broke up Team Rocket by defeating their leader. And I also know the story of Gold, who single-handedly disbanded the revived Team Rocket for good. I figured he was just a delusional grunt who believed he was making a difference. I proceeded to beat the crap out of him and get my Pokémon back. I made my way back through the levels of Victory Road once again. When I got back, I had missed the deadline for the League Registration. And, you know, those damn gate managers never seem to understand. "

"Ouch, that really sucks man."

"Whatever. I ended up watching the matches though, and once that ended, I wound up getting a head start on my journey in Johto."

"Yeah, at least that's a plus."

Marcus and I just shared stories with each other as we walked the large courtyard. I ended up learning that he was the middle child of five. His older brother became a gym leader somewhere and his sister ended up becoming an aide to Professor Elm. He had a younger brother who was enrolled at that new Pokémon Academy on an island that is equidistant from all five regions. His younger sister was still a baby. I also learned that he comes from Goldenrod City and grew up going to the Bug Catching Contest on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He never won one until he caught a Scyther.

As Marcus and I were chatting away, we eventually reached the entrance. There, we saw two figures there. There was one male and one female. They were around our age. The weird thing about them was that they were dressed exactly the same. They both had on a black zip up hoodie, black fingerless gloves, black tennis shoes, and black denim jeans. Underneath the hoodies, they wore a plain white t-shirt. They both had their hoods up which were white, in contrast to the rest of the hoodie. On the back of their hoodies, there was a white hourglass symbol turned upside down, so that there was more sand on the top and that it what represented sand was falling. They seemed busy with something that they were taking it very seriously. Had it not been around midnight, I might have just passed them by, but given the time, I couldn't help but be suspicious of what these two were doing so late at night.

"Excuse me, what are you two doing out here so late at night?" I asked the two strangers.

They turned around and looked at us. When they saw the two of us, they instantly had a look of sheer horror upon their faces. They instantly stood up and pulled out a poké ball from their belts.

"The boss said we weren't gonna have any interruptions. Dammit, go Muk!" Said the male one

"Yeah, this could be a problem. We need to dispose of them, go Liepard!" Said the female one

"Uhh, Marucs looks like we have a problem"

"Yeah, we really do. C'mon, let's send out our Pokémon. Go, Slowking!"

"Right, go Blaziken!"

Where the strangers were, there was a purple blob of sludge with eyes and a large hand with three fingers and a purple, skinny cat with yellow spots all over it with a purple center, yellow legs and paws, a yellow underbelly that reached up to its chin, and pink fur around its green eyes. On our side, we had a pink Pokémon that stood on two legs, had a tan colored underbelly, a long tail with a tan colored tip, a red and white stripped ruff around its neck, and a white shell on its head that had a single red jewel in the center and a large chicken-like creature, with elongated, furry red and yellow legs, a beak, a red torso with slight yellow patch and x shaped beige feathers, red arms with gray claws, a red face with a beige feathers extending down his back to make an upside-down v shape. Both teams were readying themselves for battle.

"Muk use Sludge Bomb!"

"Liepard use Night Slash!"

The Muk hurled a giant ball of purple sludge. It approached Blaziken. Blaziken jumped to avoid it, but ended up getting its feet damaged by the sludge. The Liepard's claws began to glow purple as it lunged at Slowking. Slowking attempted dodge the dark infused attack, but it ended up raking his arm, injuring him.

"Slowking use Water Pulse!"  
Blaziken, counter with Blaze Kick!

Slowking let loose a pulse of water from its mouth. The pulse went on to hit the Liepard. When it recovered, from the attack, Liepard appeared to be slightly disoriented. Blaziken's leg soon became engulfed in flames as he leaped up into the air and lunged at Muk. Blaziken hit Muk head on, but didn't appear to do much damage.

"Ugh, our attacks aren't really doing much" said Marcus

"Yeah, I know…" I said

"What should we do?" Marcus asked

"What if we switch attack targets? Have Slowking attack Muk and I'll get Blaziken to attack Liepard. It should work, we'll have the type advantage against them then.

"All right, let's try. Slowking, use Psychic!"

Blaziken, use Sky Uppercut!"

"Not so fast" said the man. "Muk, use Venoshock!"  
"Yes, you're in for it now" said the woman "Liepard, use Assurance!"

A purple venom aura shot out of Muk at Blaziken as Liepard began to charge at Slowking with a dark aura around it. Blaziken intercepted the attack of the Liepard and sent it up into the air with a powerful uppercut. Liepard was landed with a powerful thud and didn't get back up. Slowking took the attack that Muk sent out against Blaziken, cloaked it in the blue-purple aura of psychic energy, and sent it back at Muk. It hit Muk with full psychic force. The Muk was now defeated as well.

"D-Dammit!" The man said. "The boss is gonna kill us!"  
"What should we do?" asked the woman.

"I think you two should wait patiently as I take care of these brats and the punish you for your failure" said a third figure. He had come from the shadows of the doorway. He was dressed in a black suit with black dress pants, a fancy white shirt, a pale blue tie, pale blue gloves, pale blue boots, and a flowing pale blue cape. He wore a mask that was half black and half pale blue with that same hourglass symbol in the middle of the mask.

"L-lord Diamond!" said the woman

"Pl-please forgive us!" said the man

"Silence!" The one called Lord Diamond commanded. The other two instantly became quietly as he began to speak once more. "You two were given a very important mission, and you let a pair of kids beat you so easily. You're punishment will be very severe for your failure. As for you two, why do you meddle with us so?"

"We weren't meddling" said Marcus. "We were on our way to the castle and these two attacked us!"

"Yeah" I said "they said were interrupting some sort of plan. They were setting something up at the doorway."  
"I see" said Lord Diamond calmly. "These two should know our rules of do not attack unless attacked or ordered to do so. Since I gave no such order, you can expect there punishment to be more severe now then what I had originally intended. However, please do forgive for what I'm about to do. Because you have seen what we were doing, I must dispose of you, which is quite sad considering you two have such talent as trainers and that we were not to have any casualties this early in our grand plan. Toxicroak, take care of them."

"Wha-" I began until I heard a loud "Croak" as I felt a blow to the back of my neck as I fell to the ground, Marcus soon after me. My vision began to blur. As I began to lose consciousness, I could make out a purple frog with a red bulge standing on two legs fighting a blue dog-like Pokémon with a beige chest and spike protruding from the chest and then, a blurry face, the only feature I could make out was black hair in a poofy ponytail. I then passed out.

**A/N: Well, here we are, the next chapter. I finally introduced members of the main antagonistic force in the story. The name of this group will be revealed in the next chapter. Also, a very special thank you to Ravinae for giving me an awesome character, who was slightly introduced at the end of this chapter, and who will be fully introduced in the next chapter! I am still accepting OCs if anyone is willing. Hope you guys are enjoying my story.**


	6. Chapter 4: Team Cataclysm

Chapter 4: Team Cataclysm

I woke up in a bedroom that was very fancy. It was painted a strong violet, with a large window with a golden frame. The window had red drapes. I was laying on a large king-sized bed with purple sheets and covers and a red bed railing. Near the window, there was a red couch that could seat three people. I turned over, groaning as I did, and I saw… A face.

Right next to my face was the face of a girl around my age. She sat back in her chair, giving me a better look at her. She had long, black hair in a messy, poofy ponytail and wore a teal hat. She had on a black t-shirt that had teal around the collar and down the sides, teal cargo pants that were tucked into a pair of black military grade boots with teal laces, a bright teal belt with matching suspenders, and pair of teal gloves that were black around the wrist. She was fairly tan and had a medium build, which complemented her fairly short stature of about 5ft 2in. When I saw her, a blush instantly spread across my face. Partially because of how close her face was to mine when I first saw her, partially because I had no idea how long she had been there, meaning she could have been watching me sleep, but mostly because I am very shy around girls.

The girl took notice of my blush and let out a light giggle as she stood up. She went over to a small refrigerator in the corner of the room and pulled out a pitcher of water. She then reached into a cabinet above the fridge and took out an empty glass. She poured the water into the glass and then put the pitcher back into the fridge. She went over to a cabinet on the opposite side of the room, opened it, and pulled out a medicine bottle. She opened the bottle and took two circular pills out of it. She then walked back towards me and set the water and pills down on the small table next to me.

"Here, take these. You took a really nasty blow and a hard fall, they'll help with the pain" she said in a very sweet voice. I only nodded as I put the pills in my mouth and gulped down the water. I didn't realize it when I woke up, but I was really thirsty. Just then, my stomach let out a loud growl. I was starving!  
The girl giggled again as she said "Don't worry, I ordered us some food. I figured you would regain consciousness soon. I hope you like turkey!"

"I don't care what it is, I just really need some food in me!" I said as my stomach growled once again.

There was a knock at the door. The girl got up once again and opened it. A few moments later, she was carrying two plates. One had a simple salad on it. The other had a HUGE turkey sandwich that had lettuce, tomato, and honey mustard on it. She walked back towards me, handed me the sandwich, and then sat down and began eating her salad slowly. I instantly began to devour the sandwich with great speed. I was famished.

"You really were hungry!" she said, giggling once more "but I guess that's to be expected, you were out for four days."

"F-four days!?" I said, beginning to worry. I only had seven days in each area, and since I spent my entire first day trying to get in to this place, that means I was out for my second, third, fourth, and fifth days, making this the sixth day of my challenge.

"Don't worry" she said, taking on a more soothing tone. "I took the liberty of scheduling your area leader challenge for tomorrow evening. The Area Leader completely understood the situation and said it was alright. His giving you time to be prepared and fully recovered."

"Oh…" I said "Well, thank you very much Miss…"

"Lyssia Robyns. Lyss for short. None of this 'Miss' crap."

"Well then thank you very much Lyss, but you really didn't have to…" I began, but was soon cut off.

"Oh yes I did! I was afraid you would be unfairly disqualified because of those hooligans. You should win or lose against this Area Leader fair and square. So, after I fended off Lord Diamond's Toxicroak with my Lucario, I brought you here and your friend to another room. I have been nursing you two back to health. The only time I even took a break was when I challenged the Area Leader. When I won, I asked him to schedule times for you two to battle him. You got tomorrow, and your friend got later today. Luckily, your friend, Marcus was it?, woke up yesterday. "

"Oh wow… " I said. So this girl, Lyss, a complete stranger cared for me while I was unconscious when she didn't have to. I was very deeply moved by this, but I also wanted to know why she did it.

"I'm very grateful to you for caring for me in my time of need." I said "But, why did you? You have your own agenda and with this tournament and all…"

"I know!" she said, "but, honestly, I wasn't about to let that group of people treat you so badly. They might've killed you had I not stepped in. Not to mention how serious of a condition you were in. You needed help, and since Nurse Joy only does Pokémon, I decided to make sure you had a successful recovery."

"Well, thank you very much. I am deeply indebted to you for this."

"Oh, it was really nothing…" she said, a slight blush spreading across her face.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Well, you just did!" she giggled, "but you can ask me something else, too!"

"Oh, haha, real funny. But seriously, I want to know, who were those people that attacked us so brutally?"  
"They're an organization known as Team Cataclysm" she said. "They are hell-bent on some sort of world destruction. I honestly don't know what kind, though. All I know is that all their grunts dress the same. The same black zip-up hoodie with a white hood and upside down hourglass, black denim jeans, black sneakers, and a white t-shirt. The upside down hourglass on the back of their jackets is their organization's symbol. It supposedly represents how little time we have before our impending doom at their hands will come upon us. A load of lunacy if you ask me."

"Yeah, that sounds pretty crazy. And what of that Lord Diamond character?"  
"Lord Diamond is a high ranking official within the organization. He is the leader of the Sinnoh branch. There are four others like him. There is Lady Sapphire, leader of the Hoenn branch, Count Silver of the Johto branch, Master Black of Unova, and Red (A/N, not Red from the series, but a completely different character), who heads the Kanto branch. All five of the wear a mask that is half black with their respective color title somewhere on it and the Hourglass symbol of the team.

"Lord Diamond, Lady Sapphire, Count Silver, Master Black, and Red…" I repeated unconsciously

"Yes" Lyss confirmed. "They are the five high ranking officials within Team Cataclysm. Those five take orders directly from the leader."  
"And who is this leader?" I asked. I wanted to know as much about this group as I could.

"Nobody knows" she said. "No one has ever seen him or her except for those five individuals. She has to be seriously messed up to have founded this team for the sole purpose of world destruction and utter chaos."

"You have that right" I said. "Now, what about those two grunts at the front? What were they messing with that night?"

"Those two were rigging up a bomb. They intended to blow this castle up with everybody in it" Lyss said, her usual giggle and sweet tone was completely gone now.

"Damn…" was all I could say. The fact that this group was doing this covert operation to blow up the castle was crazy. The fact that they had branches in all five regions was even crazier. The fact that they were operating here was the craziest.

"Why are they here?" I asked

"Probably because the most powerful trainers in the world are here. They most likely have a plan involving all of us. It really scares me what they could be planning, especially considering what they were doing here. They have all intent to kill in masses without hesitation." Lyss said, she was beginning to become very emotional about this. It really did scare her.

"It's alright, Lyss" I said "Let's just not think about them and continue our tournament."  
"Yeah…" she said "Let's go. If we go now, we can just make it to the very end of your friend Marcus's match against the Area Leader!" Her original sweet and bubbly tone came back to her.

"Alright, let's go then!" I said.

Lyss helped me up out of the bed, considering I was still sore. We walked out of the room and into a grand hallway that was gold with red carpet and drapes. We walked the down the hallway until we reached an elevator. We got in and Lyss pushed the "roof" button.

"You know…" she said as the doors closed "You never introduced yourself to me."  
"Oh! I'm so sorry, my name is Andrew. Andrew Cecils."

**A/N: This is the fourth chapter. I have now officially introduced Team Cataclysm. I hope you all will receive them well. Once again, I would like to thank Ravinae for the awesome new OC, Lyss! Remember, I am still taking OCs and can't wait to receive more. Hope you guys are enjoying my story! :)**


	7. Chapter 5: The Tamer of Dragons

Chapter 5: The Tamer of Dragons

"Alright Umbreon, attack with Faint Attack!"

"Dragonite, use Dragon Rush!"

Lyss and I got out of the elevator on the roof of the castle. As we stepped out, we saw a breathtaking view. There were large Royal Palm trees around a rocky terrain. In the middle of the terrain there was a beautiful crystal blue pond that took up the majority of the center. The rocky terrain actually was, in fact, a battlefield. There were white chalk lines around the perimeter, although the standard poké ball logo wasn't there due to the large pond. Above, there was an amazing view of the orange sky of the evening. This was a battlefield designed for multiple types of Pokémon to battle on. I guess this made perfect sense, considering the Area Leader was a Dragon-type user, and most Dragon Pokémon live on a variety of terrains.

On the battlefield, there were two Pokémon battling. One was a large orange dragon with a striated cream colored underbelly, a rounded snout, two long orange antenna, a pair of stubby arms and legs with three claws on each, a small orange horn in the middle of its head, a long tail, and wings that were orange on the outside and green on the inside. On the other side was a small, sleek, black creature with a long, bushy black tail, four paws, and a pair of long, pointed black ears. As the sun set, faint yellow rings began to glow around its ears and tails and on its forelegs and forehead. The two were in fierce combat at this time. The orange dragon swooped out of the air at blinding speed. The little black creature skillfully dodged the attack by creating a distraction with the gravely terrain, and then attacking the dragon while it was distracted.

"All right then, Dragonite, use Hyper Beam, go!" commanded a tall figure from the sidelines of the battlefield. He was fairly tall and had short blonde hair that was cut very neatly. He wore a purple vest with nothing else underneath, showing how toned his arms were. He had on a pair of blue jeans that were a lot nicer than the normal jeans and purple sneakers that also looked fairly expensive. He had piercing red eyes, but they seemed to have a very kind and caring feel to them. This man must be the Area Leader, Draco, the Tamer of Dragons.

Draco's Dragonite began to charge an immense amount of energy in front of its mouth, forming a ball of concentrated energy. The ball then fired in the form of a powerful beam attack that hit Marcus's Umbreon straight on, engulfing it in the powerful blast. When the attack finally ended, Umbreon appeared again, not much of scratch on him. The attack didn't faze him in the slightest.

"Good job Umbreon!" Marcus couldn't help but be overjoyed after his Pokémon survived such a powerful attack so well. I guess what they say is true, Umbreons do have one of the most powerful Special Defenses of any Pokémon.

"Now, Umbreon, that last attack left him weak and vulnerable. Attack with Payback!"

Umbreon began to glow with a purple aura as it rushed at the vulnerable Dragonite. He hit the large Dragon head on, dealing massive damage. Dragonite fainted.

"Return Dragonite, you fought valiantly" said Draco. "Now, Marcus, get ready for my final Pokémon. Go Kingdra!"

A red beam shot out and enveloped Dragonite as another red beam was sent straight into the pond in the center. Nothing emerged. The amount of suspense concerning what was to come was immense.

"All right then, return Umbreon. Meganium, come on out!"

A red beam engulfed umbreon as fourth took form into a large, green, four-legged dinosaur creature. It had a long neck with pink flower around its neck that had a yellow center pattern and white border, calm yellow eyes, a stubby green tail, and two yellow antennae that looked like the stamen of a flower.

"Use Hydro Pump Kingdra!" Draco commanded

The enemy then jumped out of the water, allowing us a good view of it. It was a large, blue seahorse with a yellow-orange set of pronounced scales on its belly, a large white fin on its back with a blue border, a large snout on its face that seemed to act like a canon, and two long, angular antennas. It fired a powerful jet of water from its snout that hit Meganium with full force. After attacking, it went straight back into the water. A clever tactic.

"Meganium, use Magical Leaf! See if you can hit him even though he's in the water!"  
Meganium soon had leaves hovering around him that were cloaked in a strange aura. The leaves were then fired into the water quickly, one after another. We did not know what the barrage of leaves was doing, we could only hope that they were hitting. The Kingdra resurfaced, it seemed to have been damaged by the attack, but not by much.

"Kingdra, use Dragon Pulse!"

Kingdra's snout began to gather energy as he leaped in the air again. He fired a powerful purple beam from his snout that hit Meganium. Meganium struggled to get up, having been severely injured by the attack.

"Okay, that's it, let's end this now. Meganium, unleash your ultimate attack, FRENZY VINE!"

Meganium became cloaked in a green light as it slammed its front two legs down. Just then, large, spiked roots shot out of the pond, completely getting rid of the water and forcing Kingdra out. Kingdra was entangled in the vines, knocked out from the attack.

"Return Kingdra" Draco said as the usual red beam took in Kingdra and brought him back to Draco. "I believe congratulations are in order now, you won this fair and square Marcus. Take it."

Draco tossed something shiny across the battlefield and Marcus caught it. Marcus then took out his badge case and put it in. He recalled his Meganium as Lyss and I walked over to congratulate him for his victory.

"Good job Marcus!" I said.

"Yeah, you were an amazing in that battle!" Lyss said excitedly.

"Aw, well thanks guys, it was nothin' big really, just, my first badge for this tournament is all." Marcus said, blushing from the praise we were giving him.

"I agree fully, Marcus, you battled stupendously" said Draco. "You deserve this badge."  
"Thanks Draco. To be honest, you were so difficult. I had didn't think I had a chance, but I see now that I pulled through!"

"Yes, you did. Is this your friend who was with you the night Team Cataclysm struck you down?"

"Yeah, this is Andrew, he's here to challenge you, too!"  
"I see, a pleasure to meet you" Draco said as he came over and shook my hand. I couldn't tell from afar, but now that I was closer to him, I noticed that he was pretty young, only about 25 years old. He must have been a prodigy to make it this far and become an Area Leader for this crazy tournament.

"Good to meet you, too." I said. "But I'm not here to challenge you today. I have an appointment for tomorrow evening to battle you. I just woke up today, so I'm still trying to recover from that brutal attack."  
"Ah, yes, I do remember. I need to heal my team anyways. Enjoy yourselves to the Castle's luxuries while you can, no other place in the Nova Region is like this place. I will see you for your challenge, Andrew, and I hope you are a worthy opponent."

With that, Draco walked to the elevator, pressed the button, and got in. We left right after him. I went back to the courtyard to train before dinner.

The Next Evening

I walked out of the elevator, Lyss and Marcus right behind me. They both gave me an encouraging nod as they went to the sidelines to watch the battle. My team was fully healed and we had been training since we left Marcus's challenge. I was ready. Ready as I'll ever be for the Tamer of Dragons. I approached my side of the field slowly, trying to keep my cool.

"Glad you made it, Andrew" Draco said with a big smile. "Now, here are the rules of our battle. It will be a four vs. four fight, no time limit, and you can use the terrain to your advantage. If you win, you will get the Fang Badge, if you lose, you get disqualified from the Nova League. When a Pokémon is sent back to the poké ball, it is considered fainted and cannot fight for the rest of the battle. Now, let us begin: Go Hydreigon."

On Draco's side of the field, there appeared a large black dragon with six black wings, three blue heads, a blue underbelly, a long tail that was half black and half blue, and what appeared to be purple tire tread marks on its stomach and tail. Around its center head was a purple collar that looked like a flower. Only its center head had teeth and red eyes, the other two heads were toothless and only had black spots where its eyes should be. It gave me a very intimidating glare, ready for battle.

"Alright, come on out Blaziken!"

My familiar chicken Pokémon came into appearance. The darkness dragon and my flaming chicken stared each other down. The tension on the battlefield was incredibly high.

"Hydreigon, use Dragon Pulse"  
"Blaziken, Sky Uppercut!"

Hydreigon released a blast of blue energy right at Blaziken. Blaziken ripped through the energy pulse with his attack, and then landed a blow square on Hydreigon. Blaziken emerged from the battle unscathed, Hydreigon was severly damaged.

"Blaziken, finish this off with one more Sky Uppercut!"

"Hydreigon, attack it with Dark Pulse!"

Hydreigon released a blast similar to the last one, only this one was blackish-purple. Blaziken broke through this one with the same ease it did the last one, landing a very powerful attack once again. The once menacing dragon Pokémon was now beaten. Blaziken was victorious this round.

"Good job Hydreigon, return. You don't mess around do you, Andrew? I guess I need to be more forceful. Go, Haxorus!"

A tall Dragon Pokémon with dark yellow-green scales that looked like armor covering its back and most of its front. It had black skin on its torso, tail tip, and thighs and had red talons and claws. There were two black and red sharp protrusions from either side of its jaw that looked like axe heads. It whipped its tail and let out a roar as it prepared for battle.

"Blaziken, attack with Flare Blitz!"

"Haxorus, use Dragon Tail!"

Blaziken cloaked itself in flames as it rammed the opponent, causing it serious damage. However, Haxorus quickly retaliated by swinging its mighty tail at Blaziken, hitting him dead on. Blaziken went down, when suddenly, Blaziken's poké ball began acting up. The ball summoned the red beam and pulled Blaziken back into his poké ball, rendering him useless for the rest of the battle. Crap.

"Okay, what the crap just happened?" I asked

"Simple, the move Dragon Tail forces the opponent to change Pokemon every time it hits. So, now you must send out another pokemon. Choose wisely." Draco explained. I can see why he had that switching rule now, it was really clever. As if his team wasn't already difficult enough to handle… Oh well, I needed to send in another Pokemon, so I reached for my belt, and grabbed an Ultra Ball.

"Let's do this Bisharp!"

"Bish!"

My black and red humanoid chess piece Pokémon prepared for battle. The Haxorus was waiting for its master's orders.

"Haxorus, use Dragon Tail once again!"  
"Bisharp use Iron Head!"

Haxorus swung its powerful tail once again. Bisharp wasn't about to be out of this battle just yet, though. He avoided the swinging tail as the blade on his head became the color of iron. Bisharp then charged into a powerful head-butt. Haxorus became severely damaged.

"Haxorus, come. I'll heal you."

Haxorus walked back to Draco. When it got there, Draco sprayed a Hyper Potion on its wounds, successfully healing it. Haxorus roared as it was ready to continue batteling once more.

"Now, Haxorus, use Outrage!"  
Haxorus suddenly became insanely furious as its eyes glowed red and its body became cloaked in a red aura as it charged Bisharp. Bisharp was hit head on. Bisharp was heavily damaged, and the onslaught continued. The Haxorus repeatedly attacked Bisharp with its anger induced attack, further damaging Bisharp. It eventually became confused as a side-effect of the attack, but the damage was done. Bisharp was incredibly hurt. We need a solution.

"Bisharp, use Guillotine!"

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I rarely would ask Bisharp to do such a desperate attack, but he was badly hurt, Draco still had two other Pokemon, and I needed to win this battle, so I took the chance. Bisharp's blades began to glow a light blue color as he charged the disoriented axe-jawed dragon. Surprisingly, Bisharp's attack landed. Due to the power of the attack, the fully healed Haxorus was instantly struck down. Draco recalled his Pokémon.

"Well, that was very intense indeed. Now, go Salamance!"

A large, blue four-legged dragon took form. It had large, red wings, a white lower jaw and underbelly, accentuations of red on its face and long tail, and three spikey extensions on either side of its face. It flapped its large wings to gain air and flew proudly.

"Salamance, use Flamethrower!"

A large jet of flames came spewing out of Salamance's mouth. Bisharp was soon engulfed by them. Since he was already weak, Bisharp stood no chance against the flames that it was naturally weak to in the first place. Bisharp went down in the flurry of flames. I got out his Ultra Ball and recalled him before he could be damaged beyond fainting.

"Alright, come on out Ampharos!"

"Salamance use Dragon Claw!"  
"Ampharos, Charge Beam!"

Salamance's claws began to glow a pale green color. It flew towards Ampharos, claws at the ready. Ampharos let loose a powerful beam of electricity from its glowing jewel on its forehead. The beam hit Salamance, really hurting it, but it charged on through, swiping Ampharos. Both pokemon were on equal terms. Both appeared to have suffered from the blows they dealt on each other.

"Ampharos, use Power Gem!"  
"Salamance, attack with Fly!"

Salamance flew up incredibly high. It then dive-bombed directly towards Ampharos. Ampharos's jewel glowed orange as it unleashed a powerful orange beam that sparkled as if it were a large, beautiful gemstone. Salamance and the beam connected, causing Salamance to faint. However, Salamance fell out of the air and landed on top of Ampharos, causing both Pokémon to be knocked out. Both of us recalled our respective Pokémon. Now, the two of us were down to our last Pokémon for the battle.

"Go Garchomp!" we both said simultaneously.

On both sides of the field, there appeared a large, dark blue dragon-shark hybrid that had a red underbelly that stretched to their lower jaws and yellow underneath the red. They both had fins on both of their arms, a dorsal fin with a little cut in them, and a fin at the end of their long, fish-like tails. Both had a yellow cross shape on their snouts.

"Well," began Draco "I see that you, too, were able to train such an amazingly powerful Pokémon like Garchomp. We are on equal terms now. This fight will not end easily. Are you ready, Andrew?"  
"Hell yeah I'm ready! Garchomp, use Dragon Rush!"

"Garchomp, attack with Dragon Rush as well!"

Both Garchomps extended their arms, fins at the ready, became cloaked in a light blue aura, and then rushed at each other. The two attacked each other head on in a powerful collision. They continued their assault on each other, never giving up until the other was down.

Suddenly, after the two Garchomps collided in the middle of their attack, the entire building began to shake. The Garchomps stopped, as if sensing the danger of what was to come. As if he also sensed what was to happen, I saw Marcus run towards the elevator and get in. What was he up to? As he got in, the building shook again and Marcus pressed the button to go down. When he was in and completely gone from view, the building shook a third time. This time, the ground began to sink underneath our feet. The building was collapsing.

I sent out Staraptor as I recalled Garchomp. Draco recalled his Garchomp and sent out his Dragonite. I saw Lyss send out a large, white, egg-shaped Pokémon with triangular wings and a random assortment of blue and red triangles on its underbelly, a Togekiss. All three of us jumped onto our flying Pokemon and had them ascend to avoid the falling castle below us. I saw people breaking out of the numerous windows, all on flying Pokémon. I looked and looked for Marcus and his Noctowl, but I didn't see them. Right as the building fully collapsed, I saw a Noctowl break through a window, but Marcus wasn't on it. Instead, there were two young children on the Noctowl. No Marcus. The building had then completely collapsed.

We all landed our flying Pokémon. I got off of Staraptor and recalled him as I slowly walked toward the rubble.

"I know this is a terrible time…" Draco said "but, here is your badge, you earned it. Now, let us search for anything in this mess."

Draco handed me the badge, not even making eye contact. I pocketed the shiny symbol that looked like the fang of a dragon and represented my struggle in the battle against Draco. I saw the Noctowl that was carrying the two kids suddenly circling around a certain spot in the rubble. I ran over that way as Noctowl landed on the spot and began to peck it. I started to clear away the rubble in that spot. I worked and worked at clearing it away until, there he was. His clothes were completely tattered, he was covered in bruises, and he had blood trickling from the side of his mouth.

"H-hey Andrew…" Marcus said weakly

"Marcus you idiot, what were you thinking!? If you knew the building was going to collapse, why did you go back in!?" I said, my voice becoming hoarse.

"Well, you know… Those kids, I couldn't just leave them in there without a Pokémon to escape on. I figured everyone inside was too scared to help them, and I was right, so I got them on my Noctowl and out of the castle."  
"Oh Marcus…"

"Yeah, at least they made it out safe and sound…" Marcus said, his voice growing weaker

"Come on Marcus, stay with me, will get you all healed up"

"Nah… I think this is it for me, man… I want you to do me a huge favor…"

"Marcus, I'll get you to safety and get you healed up." I said, crying now.

"No, just listen to me… My brother, the one I told you about who became a gym leader… I kinda understated that a bit, he's actually the Bug type Area Leader in this competition… I want you take my Scizor to him… I know he'll treat him right…"  
"Marcus, you're going to be fine! Stop this crazy talk!" I exclaimed, my voice hoarse and cracking, my tears streaming down my face, blurring my vision.

"Hehe, you know Andrew, you're an awesome guy, a great trainer. You beat me, the Johto League Champion. I want you to take my other five Pokémon. Meganium, my starter. Noctowl, my first catch. Slowking, who helped me save Slowpoke Well. Umbreon, a gift from my parents I raised with care at night. And Ambipom, my little Champion who won the Johto League tournament. You told me about your ranch in Hoenn… I think they'd like it there… Here…"

Marcus's hand trembled as he handed me his belt with his poké balls on it. He smiled weakly and closed his eyes. Marcus then grew limp as I held him up, trying to stop him from leaving. His Noctowl came to his side and cooed as he tried to wake his fallen master. When he eventually realized that Marcus was gone, Noctowl let out a mournful cry. The Johto champion had died in the arms of his new friends, valiantly and respectiably, after saving the lives of two children.

I let out his other five Pokémon and let them say their goodbyes to him. When they were done, I returned them all. Lyss came up to me and embraced me as I cried some more. She did her best to try and comfort me. Draco then came, bearing a solemn look.

"I found what caused this to happen to the castle" he said. "It was a bomb, most likely the same one that you and Marcus caught Team Cataclysm members setting up that one night earlier this week."

"So that's what it was…" Lyss said, still embracing me. "What their purpose in doing this is beyond me. They are now a huge threat, someone needs to get on their trail."

"They're going to pay…" I said, still sobbing. "They killed him, and they WILL pay!"

My voice grew louder despite my tears and hoarse voice. Lyss and Draco had a shocked look on their faces. I had scared them with my rage, but I was completely serious. I wanted to get back at Team Cataclysm for taking the life of my friend. I know I had just met him a week ago, but he was the first friend I had made in the Nova League, and he stuck by me when we were attacked and during my first Area Leader challenge. This week with him was going to be unforgettable, I refuse to forget him and how good a friend he was and how brave he was. Team Cataclysm needed to pay.

"Andrew…" Lyss said, beginning to worry about me. "You need to calm down a little. Come on, we need to head back to the arena and tell the authorities what happened. We should also find the Bug type master and send Marcus's Pokémon to your ranch. We need to honor his request."

"The young lady is quite right" said Draco. "You two should take the path to the south of here. It'll lead you straight to the League Headquarters. When you get there, I want you two to specifically say that you must go to the Forest Area and challenge Luzige. He is the Bug type Area Leader that you need. I will call them myself and tell them that you two will be needing to go to that area. When you get there, you need to tell Luzige exactly what happened and then give him his brother's Scizor. He will be able to contact their family."

"I-I see" I said, clearing tears from my eyes. "We will."

"Yes" said Lyss "We will get Luzige to understand and help get in touch with his and Marcus's family."

"Good" Draco said. "I will phone in at the League Headquarters once you two are gone. Lyss, Andrew, be on your way, and hurry. Don't stop for anything until you get there. Luckily the Headquarters is only an hour trip from here on foot, if you recall. Be very careful, and good luck to you both."

"Thank you" Lyss said. "And good luck on fixing this mess."  
"Yes, thank you." I said. "You are a noble and intelligent leader."

"Thank you for your encouraging words. I don't think the castle will be up again for a while. I might just have to work with another Area Leader, perhaps the Volcano Leader. Or, maybe I will just battle from the Headquarters Arena. Now, both of you, be off, and hurry!"

Lyss and I walked on the south road and headed back towards the Nova League Headquarters. This day was a very dark day. As we walked off, the traumatic events of the day weighed heavily on our minds. As we walked, we kept the memory of Marcus, the reigning Johto League Champion, a good friend, and a brave young man, fresh in our minds.

**A/N: Wow, that chapter was hard to write. I hope you guys are still enjoying the story, and I hope you will like this chapter, my longest and most emotional so far. I would like to thank Vexenna for submitting an awesome OC that will be introduced next chapter! Please keep sending me your OCS! I hope you like this chapter and will keep reading my story! :)**


	8. Chapter 6: The Guardian of the Forest

Chapter 6: The Guardian of the Forest

Lyss and I finally made it back to the Nova League Headquarters. We made our way to the place where we first got our Area assignments. As we walked over, we saw a large, bulky man in the standard League Headquarters uniform. We walked to the man and handed him our trainer cards. We were ready to explain everything to him.

"Oh, it's you two. Yes, Draco called us already, and informed us of the situation at hand. Everything is has been arranged for you two to go to the forest next. It all works out now anyways, we were putting in a new rule that says you can choose which area you wish to go to. This allows for trainers to form travelling groups and be safer. We decided we needed to introduce this for the safety of trainers now that we have the problem with Team Cataclysm" the man explained. It now seemed that Team Cataclysm had struck fear even in the authorities of the League.

"What you two need to do" the man said "is go northeast of here. You'll come to a place in the road that forks three separate ways. You need to take the road on the right, it leads to the forest. The one to the left leads to the Swamp Area and the one in the center leads to the Meadow Area. You two are going to the Forest Area, so take the right road. Don't forget it. "

"Okay, northeast, right road at the fork." Lyss repeated. "Thank you, sir."

"You're welcome, and you two be very careful, we don't know what this Team Cataclysm is up to, but they're very dangerous."

With that, we left and headed to the Northeast. We walked along a green, meadow path for a long time, about an hour and a half. We eventually came to the aforementioned fork. The left path looked as if it were in a desperate state. It had decaying trees and looked incredibly dangerous. The center path continued with the grassy field. The right path was very heavily wooded with dense, colorful trees all along it. That was the path we needed. Lyss and I went to the right, straight into the forest.

We walked through the forest for a while. It was truly a beautiful forest. The leaves on the trees were just beginning to change. The leaves were wonderful shades of yellow, orange, and brown that were falling all around with the gentle breeze of autumn. As we walked, we could hear the soft crunch of leaves underneath our feet. The gentle breeze kept us very cool. This area was incredibly different from the Castle, more in tune with nature. Just being here made me calm.

As Lyss and I continued walking through the forest, we saw a person standing in the middle of the road. It was a girl who wasn't much taller than Lyss. She was skinny, yet looked like she had very toned muscle as well and was very tan. She had long, violet hair that covered one of her indigo eyes and reached all the way down to her waist. Despite her appearing to be around our age, she had royal blue tattoos that spread across her chest and down her arms. The tattoos were in some strange, swirled pattern that made no sense and the pattern was perfectly symmetrical on both sides of her body. She wore a short-sleeved, blue-green shirt that cut off at her belly, showing off her tattoos and stomach, that had purple edges and tear shaped beads decorating the end of it. She wore a long, flowing skirt that was icy blue on top, but faded into a dark blue as it went down and light, a strange, violet net thing over the skirt, four belts, one dark orange, one red, one yellow, one green, each of which held at least one poké ball, and blue ballet slippers that laced up her calves in a crisscross fashion. She had a pink bandana on her head, a red dragon pendant around her neck, a gold chain necklace with a teardrop pendant, large, gold hoop earrings, bangles on her wrists and right ankle, eyeliner and sparkling lip gloss. She appeared to be a beautiful, young gypsy girl who was looking for a challenge.

"Well, well, what have we here? Two young trainers I see! My name is Kairi Adrika and I would like to challenge them!"

"Okay, I'm always up for a challenge! My name's Lyss!" Lyss said, happily accepting the challenge.

"Oh no, no, no, you don't seem to be near my level of skill. I want to challenge the strong looking boy next to you."

"You mean Andrew?" said Lyss questioningly, sounding a little hurt that she wasn't invited to challenge the new challenger in our path.

"M-me!?" I said. I began to blush at her compliment, as was usual because of how nervous I tend to get around girls. "Wh-why m-me?"

"More importantly, WHY NOT ME!?" Lyss yelled, she was taking this really very seriously.

"Well, simple" said the gypsy girl. "He seems like a tough competitor, and you do not."  
"Oh THAT'S IT! GO RAICHU!"

A brown mouse with yellow electric sacs on its cheek, a long tail with a lightning bolt shaped end, a white belly, long, dark-brown ears with yellow insides, and brown paws and feet appeared in front of Lyss. The gypsy appeared shocked, but then she seemed to accept the challenge in front of her.

"I see, so I guess I will fight you then, but don't cry when you lose. Go Pachirisu!"

In front of the gypsy girl appeared a small, white squirrel Pokémon that had a blue strip running from the top of its head, along its back, all the way down its tail, with three blue spikes protruding from its tail, blue ears, and the same yellow electric cheek sacs as Raichu.

"Pachirisu use swift!"  
"Raichu use Iron Tail"

Pachirisu let out a barrage of stars that homed in on Raichu. Raichu retaliated by turning its tail into iron, smacking the stars away, and then charged at Pachirisu and slammed his tail into the foe. Pachirisu was sent flying with the sheer force of the attack. The little squirrel got back up, determined to fight back.

"Pachirisu, use Charge! And then use your Discharge attack for maximum power!"

"Raichu use your Double Team!"

Pachirisu began to charge up electricity into it as Raichu began to create illusionary copies of itself, making it difficult to determine which one was the real one. Pachirisu let loose its stored energy into a powerful electrical attack that caused all the copies to disappear and hurt Raichu pretty badly.

"Pachirisu, finish this off with Last Resort!"

"Raichu use Volt Tackle!"

Pachirisu was cloaked in a star shaped aura and began to charge at Raichu. Raichu let a lot of volts of electricity that surrounded its body. The two charged at each other, appearing to be on equal terms. Eventually, Raichu won, forcing Pachirisu down. However, Raichu;s attack was so powerful, that it ended up fainting as a result. Both female trainers recalled their Pokémon.

"Not bad, not bad. But let's see how you will truly fair against my next pokemon. Go Medicham!"

"All right then, come on out Lucario!"

Lyss sent out the blue dog pokemon that I had seen as I passed out that one night. The gypsy had on her side a gray humanoid Pokémon that appeared to be wearing baggy, red pants with yellow dots on the knees and a red headpiece that had a yellow dot in the center and three lobe like extensions, two hanging down near its ears and one sticking straight up.

"Lucario use Aura Sphere!"  
"Medicham use Confusion!"

The Medicham let out a psychic wave. Lucario gathered energy in its paws that formed into a light blue ball and then launched it at Medicham. The two attacks collided, battling each other for dominance. The Aura Sphere won out and successfully landed a powerful hit on Medicham.

"Medicham, attack with Hi Jump Kick!"

"Lucario, use Flash Canon!"

Medicham jumped up incredibly high, and then extended one of its legs in preparation for a powerful kick. Lucario fired a powerful silver beam from its paws. Medicham went straight through the beam, landing the powerful kick on Lucario. Both pokemon had suffered a considerable amount of damage. They both stood up, ready to fight again as both female trainers readied themselves to give another order to their faithful team members. However, they could not finish this with their battle. We had a few uninvited guests join the party.

"Well, well, a fight going one here I see" said a man's voice. We looked around and there we saw the familiar black jacket with a white hood. There were two of them, one male, one female, just like last time, but these grunts were different from the ones I faced last time. The male grunt had frizzy red hair and a strong jawed face and the girl had long blonde hair and a pale, delicate face. Both of them were looking to start something here.

"What do you two want?" I said, my anger growing at the sight of them.

"Simple" said the girl "We're here on a very important mission, and you're in our way. Go Houndoom!"

"Wh-what are you doing?" Kairi said "If you use a single fire type move, especially at this time of the year, you'll start a forest fire!"  
"And that, my dear girl, is the plan" said a third voice as he stepped out from the shadows. This man was wearing a silver suit with a black bowtie and black dress shirt with one black glove on his right hand and one silver glove on his left. He had silver dress pants and black loafers on his feet. He carried a black cane with a silver handle. He had long black hair that went down to his back and was perfectly straight. His face was hidden behind a silver mask that was black around the eyeholes and the border. The mask bore the hourglass symbol in black in the center of the mask.

"That's right, little lady" said the male grunt. "Go Magcargo!"

"You see…" said the masked man "We need to start a fire in order to draw out the Guardian of the Forest. If we can draw her out, we can proceed with our plan. "

"You-you're Crazy!" Lyss shouted

"No!" said the masked man. "We are visionaries! You two, take care of them, make sure to start a fire here with your Pokemon. I will go on ahead and start a second one that will increase the surface area of fire and double the success rate of our plan!"

"Yes sir, Count Silver, sir!" the grunts said in unison.

The one called Count Silver ran on ahead as the two grunts prepared their Pokémon. They had a black dog Pokémon with a skull on the base of its neck, bone like structures on its back, rings around its feet, long bone-colored horns, a long black, pointed tail, and an orange snout and underbelly. They also had a snail like Pokémon that appeared to be made entirely of red hot magma and was inside a stone colored shell that had cracks with flames spewing out from it.

"Kai, Lyss, do you two think you can handle this here while I go after the silver-clad freak?" I asked

"Yes, I believe we can, go Pidgeot!" Said Kai

Roger that, Andrew, GO BLASTOISE!" said Lyss.

Lyss and Kai had recalled their Fighting type pokemon. In their place, there was a large brown bird with tan colored feathers in the front of its body, and dark brown in the back. It had long, red feathers for its tail, a sharp beak, fierce eyes, and a long plumage of red and yellow feathers extending from its head, being about as long as its entire body. There was also a large, bipedal tortoise Pokémon with a thick brown shell covering its back and torso, stubby arms and legs, and two powerful looking canons mounted in its shell on its shoulders.

"We'll be sure to put out any flames these guys start, you go on ahead after that weirdo!" said Lyss

"Yes, go on. We can take things from here" said Kai.

I ran off after the one called Count Silver. I ran deep into the forest. I sent out my trusted Staraptor so that he could help me fan out any flames we may find on our way. As I got closer to where Count Silver was, I began to feel an intense amount of heat. There was fire beginning to spread all around me. Eventually, I got to a point where I was completely surrounded by flames. The beautiful trees were now engulfed in a harsh orange flame and the wonderful leaves of fall were now flaming on the ground, about to become nothing but ash. In the center of this once beautiful, but now harsh area there was Count Silver with his fire starter, a tall Pokémon with yellow fur on its front, dark blue fur on its back that fringed at the bottom, and a ring of orange flames around its neck.

"Good job Typhlosion. Keep it up! At this rate, the Guardian will be here in a matter of seconds!" exclaimed Count Silver in a gleeful frenzy.

"Not if I can stop you, Staraptor, fan out these flames!" I commanded.

Staraptor tried his best to put out the flames around us, but the fire kept spreading further and further. It all became too much for Staraptor. It didn't help that the Typhlosion began spewing flames in order to stop Staraptor's vain efforts in putting out this unbelievable fire.

All of a sudden, a small green fairy-like Pokémon appeared. It had round, toeless feet, three fingers on its tiny hands, a large head that came to a point at the very end, looking like some sort of pointed hairstyle, a pair of clear wings on its back, large, baby-blue eyes, big black circles surrounding its eyes, and a pair of green antenna with baby-blue tips.

"At last, you appear before me Celebi, oh Guardian of the Forest!" Count Silver exclaimed as he pulled out a strange looking poké ball. It was gold on the top half and silver on the bottom half.

The fairy Pokémon, Celebi created a very powerful psychic field around us. Just as suddenly as she had appeared, the flames surrounding us were gone, leaving us with the familiar autumn colored trees and leaves around us. She then turned to Count Silver and his Typhlosion, a very angry expression on her face.

"Oh, no need to be angry with your new master, oh Legendary Guardian of the Forest! We request your powers to further our plan. Now, Typhlosion, use Flamethrower!"

"No, Staraptor, protect it! Use Close Combat!"

Typhlosion sent a powerful stream of flames from its mouth, Staraptor intercepted it, but was too weak from trying to put out the flames. He fell before he could land his attack. Celebi saw its fallen savior and became even angrier. She released another powerful psychic wave that hit Typhlosion full on, hurting it badly, but not enough to count it out.

"Fine, you asked for it Celebi! Typhlosion, use Flame Wheel!"

Typhlosion become enveloped in powerful flames as it rushed at Celebi. Celebi tried to create a powerful psychic barrier around us, but was too late. Typhlosion's attack connected and Celebi went down. The Guardian of the Forest was beginning to burn up from the flames of the attack. She was severely injured and couldn't fight anymore. Stopping the spread of the forest fire and returning the forest to its original state took a toll on the little green fairy. She was too vulnerable now.

"Very good, now you're MINE!" Count Silver exclaimed as he launched the half gold, half silver poké ball. It connected with Celebi and she went in without any sort of fight.

"HAHAHAHA! I, COUNT SILVER, COLLECTOR OF RARE POKEMON, HAVE DONE IT! I CAPTURED THE LEGENDARY CELEBI!" Count Silver boasted.

"Y-you…. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER!?" I asked, my emotions getting the better of me.

"You see, dear boy, this is the GS Ball, the only ball capable of successfully capturing Celebi. I obtained it and have now captured Celebi for us of Team Cataclysm to use her!"

"N-no… I won't let you… I WON'T LET YOU!"  
I began to charge at him, my fist ready to connect with his head and reveal the face underneath the mask. As I got closer, he recalled his Typhlosion and sent out a light purple bat with two wings on top, two wings on bottom, large, yellow eyes, and teeth that jutted out. He hopped on to the bat and flew off.

"Good try, but you can't stop Team Cataclysm! Our plan is in motion and all events are set to happen! Be prepared boy!" he said as he flew off.

As the silver clad masked man flew away on his purple bat, I fell to the ground and began to weep. I failed in my revenge for Marcus and I failed in saving the legendary Guardian of the Forest.

**A/N: A very special thanks to Vexenna for an awesome new travelling companion! Still accepting OCs! Hope you guys like this chapter! :)**


	9. Chapter 7: Of Shadows and Bugs

Chapter 7: Of Shadows and Bugs

It had been three days since my failure to save Celebi. Kai had joined our little traveling group. She was a great addition, always telling fantastic stories. Last night she told us the story of a strange legendary water Pokémon named Manaphy who hatched from an odd egg obtained from the faraway region of Fiore. The night before she told us of the Legendary Golems and how they pulled the continents into place and then proceeded to bring about the Stone, Ice, and Iron Ages of human history. My mind began to wander as we walked, and I wondered if Team Cataclysm would try and go after the Golems and the Manaphy Egg too…

There had been no sign of Team Cataclysm since Count Silver captured Celebi, at least, not in the forest. Their forest fire didn't seem to leave a mark on the forest, thanks to Celebi before Count Silver and Team Cataclysm got their filthy hands on her. The deeper we walked in the forest, the more regret I felt about Celebi being gone.

"All right Ursaring, finish this with Return!"

"Vespiquen, use Defend Order!"

As Lyss, Kai, and I came through a very dense part of the forest, we heard sounds of a battle going on. We rushed ahead into a circular clearing in the forest. There were orange, yellow, and brown autumn leaves all over the ground. The forest's trees created a ring around it so that it made for the ideal battlefield. On the field, there was a large, yellow and black-striped Pokémon. It had a round upper body, four clear wings, a red jewel on its forehead, two long, skinny arms, pincers on its mouth, and a longer lower body that resembled a ballroom gown. There was also a large, brown bear Pokémon standing on two legs with a beige ring of fur around its belly, a beige snout with a black nose, fringes on its shoulders, and five sharp claws on its paws. The bee had a swarm of small insects surrounding it as the bear went in for an attack. The smaller insects failed in protecting the larger insect as the bear assaulted it, leaving the bee unable to battle.

A trainer recalled the bee. He wore a green sweater-vest with a yellow, short sleeved shirt underneath, long, beige pants, a pair of brown loafers, and a pair of square glasses in front of forest green eyes. He had unkempt brown hair that stuck out in all directions, especially this one part that stuck straight up in the center of his head, and a very nervous air surrounding him. He walked across to the other side of the battlefield and shook the hand of another, handing him something shiny in the process. That must've been the Area Leader, Luzige.

The other person was around 15 years of age. He had spikey, red hair with a blue band in it. Attached to the blue band was a small silver device that looked like it held a screen of some sort. He had on a yellow vest with a long-sleeved, black undershirt with a red stripe along the side of the sleeve, baggy blue pants with a red stripe along the sides, a pair of goggles around his neck, black shoes, and gray belt that hung low with a small gray pouch attached to it. What was most interesting about him though, was his right arm, or rather, what was on it. His right arm had this metal contraption on it that started at his shoulder and extended to his hand. It looked like a silver shoulder pad with a black wire attached to it that went down to his hand. On his hand was a strange gray glove with a machine attached to the back with a fluorescent blue light in it. What purpose the machine on the boy's arm served, I had no clue.

"Well, Michael, I'm thoroughly surprised by how well you battled. You only used five of your six Pokémon in a six on six battle, against an Area Leader, no less! You stayed calm and you executed your attacks splendidly! I have the utmost pride in giving you the badge of this area. I have to know, though, what is your final Pokémon?"

"I'm sorry Luzige…" the boy, Michael said "but I can't tell you. I only carry him with me for the sake of keeping him near me at all times. I have vowed never to use him unless the situation demanded it. Had you beaten my Ursaring, I would've surrendered right then and there."

"That powerful a Pokémon, huh?"

"Like you wouldn't believe. All you need to know is that it's so powerful that I still can't seem to tame it."

"Well, like I said, you are a fantastic trainer, Michael, and the youngest I've faced so far. I'd expect nothing less from a trainer from the Orre Region, otherwise known as the region of nothing but trainers."

Now, I know I'm not the best at geography here, but I had never even heard of the Orre Region. It sounded like some sort of faraway, mystical place to me. I mean, I had journeyed through all five regions, ALL FIVE! Yet, here there is a trainer from a region I never ventured. I mean, I know there are other regions, like Fiore and Almia, but those had only Pokémon rangers, no trainers. Yet, here was a trainer who was from a region of Pokémon trainers that I had never heard of. Well, naturally, I was curious, so I had to ask about it.

"What's the Orre Region?" I asked as Lyss, Kai and I walked up to the pair. All four of the people around me looked at me as if I was stupid. "What?" I asked.

"Andrew..." Kai said "how do you not know about the Orre Region? They've been having major coverage in last ten years."

"Yeah" Lyss said "What with the whole first Shadow Pokémon incident ten years ago, and then the second Shadow Pokémon incident five years ago. They've been a hotspot for news for a while!"

"Well, sorry, I've never heard of the place… I was a little busy traveling for a while, the news doesn't really reach you when you're on the road…" I said. I was kinda feeling stupid now since everybody seemed to know about this place.

"Well, Andrew" said the Red-haired boy, Michael in a small fit of laughter "The Orre Region is a large, mostly desert region located between Hoenn and Johto. There are some mountains, and the west side of the region is pretty green and located near an ocean, but everything else is desert. There are rarely wild Pokémon found around it. We have to import our Pokémon from Hoenn and Johto. We are all hot blooded battlers there. However, it seems not many of us were fit for this tournament probably because of Orre being known for its criminal activity rather than its trainers. We have a town of nothing but thieves and rogues. Like Hoenn, we had two criminal organizations, Team Snagem and Cipher. Snagem wasn't much of threat; they just stole other people's Pokémon. Cipher, however, instrumented this whole operation where they artificially closed the door to Pokémon's hearts. The first Shadow Pokémon incident consisted of Team Snagem stealing people's Pokémon, and Cipher turning them into Shadow Pokémon. This was stopped by a former Snagem member named Leo. The second Shadow Pokémon incident was when Cipher created a Shadow Pokémon that was supposed to be immune to purification and used it to attack a Pokémon transport ship. They then took every Pokémon aboard the ship and mass produced Shadow Pokémon. To this day, every Shadow Pokémon has been purified and Cipher has been disbanded. The only exception to this is Shadow Pokémon immune to purification, XD001, they called it."

"That's right!" said Luzige "and they were disbanded the second time because of Michael here! So, naturally, he was selected to be a part of this tournament. So was the other boy, Leo, but after the First Shadow Pokémon incident, we have no idea what happened to him."

"So, you're a hero!?" I said, looking at the younger boy. It was rather surprising that someone could have saved an entire region when he was so young.

"I guess you can say that" said Michael "but I refuse to take that status until I learn to purify XD001."

"What pokemon was XD001?" Lyss asked.

"Hehe, tell you what, you'll know him when you see him. He looks… different from other Pokémon, especially what he is normally supposed to look like."

With that Michael began to walk off. He left the four of us puzzled at his leaving without at least saying goodbye. He walked off towards the forest. Before he entered back into the forest, he looked back at the four of us.

"Don't worry, you all will see me again. With the way things are going now with Team Cataclysm, I'm sure you'll see _him_, too." And with that, Michael disappeared into the forest.

"So, are you three here to challenge me?" asked Luzige.

"Well, yes, but, not at the moment. You are Luzige, Marcus's older brother, right?" Lyss asked him.

"Why, yes, I am. How do you know my little brother?" Luzige asked.

With that, I told him the story of what happened at the castle. I told him how Marcus and I fought on top of the wall, how we interfered with Lord Diamond and his grunts in setting up the bomb, how we had been knocked out by Lord Diamond's Toxicroak, how Marcus had fought and won splendidly against Draco and his powerful Dragon Pokémon, and how Marcus gave his life for the children he rescued as the castle collapsed.

"And his team? What became of his Pokémon he used for the tournament?" Luzige asked, surprisingly calm about the whole thing.

"Well…" I said "he gave me his Meganium, Noctowl, Slowking, Ambipom, and Umbreon. They were sent to my family's ranch in Hoenn."

"And his Scizor?"

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Sport Ball Scizor was held in. I enlarged it and handed it to Luzige. When he saw what it was, he instantly began to tear up.

"I see…" said Luzige fighting back tears. "You know, Scizor was his pride and joy. His signature Pokémon. You couldn't have Marcus without his Scizor."

"I know" I said, trying my best to be as comforting as possible.

"Marcus was always one to rush into things" Luzige said. "When he was old enough to finally get his own Pokémon, he ran on ahead of me the whole way from Goldenrod to New Bark Town. When reached Professor Elm's lab, he took a Chikorita and ran off, eager to start his journey. We were exploring route 29 in the evening. He was determined to catch his first Pokémon then and there. When a Hoothoot appeared, he decided to take it on, not knowing what the hell he was doing. I watched him battle that Hoothoot, and he did so poorly. He was determined, though. He finally got the hang of it and, when he was ready, I handed him an empty poké ball that he used to capture that Hoothoot. He soon took on the Violet City Gym, and I watched him as he won despite having a major type disadvantage. He hurried on ahead through Union Cave, barely letting me stay with him. We got to Azalea Town and, wouldn't you know it, some of those damned Team Rocket guys were attacking Slowpoke Well. Marcus rushed in without thinking. Inside, he caught a Slowpoke and took out those Team Rocket goons. Of course, me and my Bug Pokémon kinda did most of the work, but he was young and we let him think what he wanted. I was a little nervous about the Slowpoke because of how annoyingly slow and difficult they are to raise, but Marcus insisted. He now had a team of three Pokémon as he took on my friend and fellow bug fanatic, Bugsy. After winning, we went on through Ilex forest. He taught his Pokémon Headbutt. He was determined to find a good new Pokémon in the trees, but he didn't find anything. Instead, we just ended up expanding my bug collection more. We made it back to our home in Goldenrod. Mom and Dad were so proud of Marcus that they took him shopping and bought him an Eevee, much like they did with me when they got me a Wurmple. I watched him beat Whitney, the gym leader in Goldenrod, and we went on ahead to the National Park. And that's when it happened. Marcus and I both entered. There had been only two pokemon in the many times I entered that I had never captured: Scyther and Pinsir. That day was both lucky and unlucky for me. I ended up getting Pinsir all right, but Marcus got the grand prize. He found a Scyther and caught it. Not only that, he ended up winning, too. Beating me, for the first time ever. I was shocked. I was even more shocked when he kept the Scyther on his team and raised it himself. After that, he beat the Ecruteak, Cianwood, and Olivine Gyms with little problem. On our way to Mahogany Town, Marcus was beginning to worry that he would never find a sixth member for his team. So, I told him to Headbutt some more trees, which he did. This resulted in him obtaining his Aipom, which he instantly grew to love just as much as the rest of his Pokémon. He took out the Mahogany Gym with ease, got through Ice Path, and took on Clair of Backthorn City. He did have trouble with her, but in the end, his Scyther won out. Since he was still relatively new at Pokémon and he had yet to evolve his Eevee, Scyther, and Aipom, he decided to hold off on his Pokémon League Challenge. A few years later, I had been off studying Bug Pokémon of different regions and had obtained my Leader status, Marcus took on the Johto League. He and Scizor dominated, rarely switching out to his other Pokémon. Finally, the finals came around. His entire team had been wiped out except for Aipom. He sent out Aipom agains a fierce Houndoom. Not knowing what was going to happen, his Aipom successfully used Double Hit and evolved into Aimbipom right then and there. He won the whole thing. I was so proud of my little brother, he had grown so much. And now… now he's gone."

Luzige was really tearing up now. He traveled the entire Johto Region with his brother and helped him on his way to becoming the champion he was. He removed his glasses as tears streamed down his face. He stood up and walked off.

"I will take all three of you on tomorrow" he said, his voice strong despite the pain he was feeling and the tears going down his cheeks. "I will have eighteen different Bug Pokémon ready, six for each of you. Tomorrow's battle will be a battle of strategy for each of you. If you can't strategize well, you will not be able to win against me. Be prepared."

And with that, Luzige walked off. Later that night, he ended up calling his family and telling them what had happened to Marcus. They arranged for him to go home to Johto the next week with his brother's body so they could have the funeral. He would be back before any challengers would reach him.

Lyss had her Pokémon with her in the forest for training. Kai had hers out as they tried to come up with a strategy. I sat alone that night and prepared myself for tomorrow. I knew exactly how I wanted my Pokémon to battle tomorrow. I had a strategy ready.

**A/N: Hey, hope you guys are still enjoying so far. I gave two origin stories in this chapter, one for Michael, who we will see later on, and one for our dear friend Marcus! I'm **_**still**_** accepting OCs, just PM me if you'd like to submit one! :)**


	10. Chapter 8: The Bug Strategist

Chapter 8: The Bug Strategist

"The rules are simple: All three of you will face me. I have 9 different Bug type Pokémon, three for each of you. I know I said that this would be a full 6 on 6 battle, but due to the actions of Team Cataclysm and the date of my brother's funeral, that needed to be changed. You may think that simply using a fire type or a flying type will win you this match. Let me tell you, you're wrong. You will need strategy and perfect synchronization with your team in order to win. I will face all three of you today. Kairi, you are first. Let us begin. Go Beautifly!"

"Alright then, go Pachirisu!"

Kai's blue and white electric squirrel appeared on her side. On Luzige's side appeared a small black butterfly, with a gray face, belly, and four stubby limbs. It had a long, curled, black proboscis, large blue eyes, two long, black antennae, and two black wings with a mostly yellow pattern on it with some blue and red thrown in. It was a very radiant Pokémon.

"Now, Beautifly, use Bug Buzz!"

"Pachirisu, use Quick Attack!"

Beautifly let out a sound wave that was visibly red in color. It spread out in a large area and it had the intent of damaging the electric squirrel. Pachirisu rushed back in forth at near blinding speed. He lunged at Beautifly with great speed to increase its power. The sound wave, however, finally made contact with the now mobile squirrel. It wasn't looking too good.

"Pachi, use charge, and then let out a discharge!"

"Beautifly, use silver wind!"

Pachirisu stored energy in his little body as he prepared a powerful electric attack. Beautifly let loose a powerful gust from its wings. The odd thing about it was that the wind turned silver in color, reflecting its name. It was a truly magnificent attack that was executed with great beauty. Pachirisu was just about to let out all of his stored electricity when the attack got to him. It took him in and began to slice him from all sides. A few sparks of electricity left Pachirisu and landed on Beautifly, critically injuring it, but not like what it had done to him. Pachirisu could barely move now. One more attack would surely do him in.

"Beautifly, finish this quickly with Giga Drain"

Kai didn't even have enough time to execute an order. Beautifly's proboscis began to glow green as it fluttered down and connected it to Pachirisu. Beautifly began to drain whatever energy remained in Pachirisu, healing itself of the battle that had just ensued. Beautifly was perfectly healthy once again. Pachirisu was down. Kai recalled him into his Quick ball.

"All right then, go Pidgeot!"

The brown bird appeared, with a fierce look, ready to fight. Pidgeot spread his wings and let out a loud cry.

"Pidgeot, use Wing Attack!"

Pidgeot shot forward, wings extended. One wing connected with Beautifly and sent it flying. Luzige recalled his Beautifly.

"Remember what I said: A type advantage won't help you much in this battle. Go Dustox!"

A moth pokemon appeared. It had a rounded purple body with large green wings that had red dots. Large yellow antennae and large yellow eyes were on its face and six red, stubby legs on its chest.

"Dustox, use Toxic."

"Pidgeot, use Air Slash!"

Pidgeot flapped up powerful gusts of wind that went at Dustox like razor blades as Dustox shot a stream of purple goo from its mouth. The wind blades and the purple goo hit both their targets head on. Dustox's wings took severe damage from the attack. Pidgeot appeared to be fine.

"Venoshock, Dustox!"

"Pidgeot, finish with a Wing Attack!"

Pidgeot hit Dustox with its extended wing as Dustox fired a green goo from its mouth this time. Dustox went down, but not before the goo hit Pidgeot. The goo stuck and Pideot was in serious pain. After a while, Pideot glowed a faint purple and was in even more pain, a result of the toxic. But, he wasn't out yet.

"Return, Dustox. Now, come on out Kricketune!"

"Pidgeot use Roost to heal yourself!"

Pidgeot perched on the ground as it rested to restore the major damage it took from Dustox. On Luzige's side, a red cricket with long red arms, a black mustache –like protrusion from its mouth, and black wings resembling a cape appeared. It looked like the conductor of a bug choir.

"Pidgeot, use Air Slash!"

"Kricketune, attack with sing!"

The Air Blades Pidgeot whipped up went straight at Kricketune as it sang a sweet melody. Pidgeot fell from the air, fast asleep as the poison began to hurt it more. Kricketune skillfully dodged the air blades.

"Pidgeot!? Wake up! Pidgeot…?"

Pidgeot was affected by the poison once more as it remained asleep. It wasn't moving much and its breathing was heavy. He was unable to continue the fight. Kai recalled her.

"All right then, go Medicham!"

Kai sent out her yoga fighting Pokémon. It readied itself for a long fight.

"Medicham, use Calm Mind and then use Psychic!"

"Kricketune use Fury Cutter"

The red cricket attacked the yoga Pokémon with an extended forearm and took a swing. Medicham cloaked the conductor in the light-blue aura. Kricketune was launched several feet into the air and pushed backward. It got up and shook the whole thing off.

"Kricketune, use Perish Song."

As Kricketune got up and began to sing. The song was strangely beautiful, in a very harsh sounding way, if that's even possible.

"Now, since we're both on our last Pokémon," Luzige said "Kricketune's song will cause us both to lose in about one minute if one of us doesn't knock the other out before then. I hope you worked on your strategy."

"I think you should be the one worried here." Kai calmly said. "Medicham, use Mind Reader."

Medicham began to concentrate as it focused in on the Kricketune. She was beginning to analyze the bug conductor to make sure the next attack would hit.

"Kricketune use Hyper Voice, keep going until the minute is up."

Kricketune began to screech loudly. The sound was so loud and so powerful, that Medicham was cringing and unable to move from the sound. Kai tried calling out an order, but it seemed as if they weren't getting to her Medicham.

"Medicham, use Hi Jump Kick, hurry!" Kai tried to say despite the noise. Medicham must have heard her because she jumped up high in the air, and landed a hard kick on the conductor bug. Kai smirked, knowing that her Medicham was able to attack successfully due to the concentration it had from using Mind Reader. Her strategy was successful.

"Well, good, good. You can strategize very well, Kairi. You have won this battle. Lyssia, you're next. Go Ninjask."

"Well…" Lyss said, ready for battle "Go Ninetales!"

Luzige sent out a small, black bodied bug with white wings that had red markings, a golden "mask," red eyes, and two gray insectoid arms. Lyss sent out a white fox with slender paws and nine white tails, as the name implies, with orange tips.

"Ninjask, use Double Team, then, X-Scissor"

Ninjask made numerous copies of itself as it began to move faster and faster. Each copy simultaneously crossed its arms in an X shape and then lunged at Ninetales. It appeared as if numerous Ninjask were striking Ninetales. The real one could not be told from the copies.

"Ninetales, use Flamethrower, get rid of as many copies as you can!"

Ninetales shot a powerful stream of flames from her mouth as she hit each Ninjask. Copy after cope began to disappear until, finally, she hit the real one. The Pokémon suffered a severe burn.

"Well now, good thinking. Ninjask, use Swords Dance, then, Slash."

Ninjask's forearms began to glow a deep purple color. It then moved a blinding speed and landed a powerful slash on Ninetales. It seemed to be moving faster than before.

"Wait… Ninjask… Is it moving faster?" Lyss asked, confused

"Good observation." Luzige commended. "Ninjask has the ability Speed Boost. As such, my Ninjask will get faster every time he attacks. Now, Swords Dance and then use Slash again Ninjask."

"Ninetales, attack with Extrasensory!"

Ninjasks arms glowed an even darker purple as its arms elongated. Ninetales attempted to hit the Ninjask with a strong psychic attack, but it was too fast. It hit with its slash attack and Ninetales went down. However, Ninjask was hurt by its burn. It could still fight, but was severely weakened.

"Return Ninetales…" Lyss said. "Now it's time to really get things goin'! Go Haxorus!"

Lyss sent out the large green –yellow dragon Pokémon with axes on its jaws. It was ready to fight. Ninjask's burn hurt it once again.

"Well, I think Ninjask is in no condition to fight. I'm calling it quits for him. He is out of this match right after this: Ninjask, use Baton Pass."

Ninjask was suddenly enveloped in the beam that a poké ball has when it surrounds a Pokémon. Ninjask was pulled back to its ball. In its place, there was a yellow-brown bug pokemon. It appeared to be just a shell though, as it didn't move and didn't appear to have eyes. It had a hole in the back that was burst open to give it the appearance of wings. However, it didn't use these pseudo-wings, as it just floated there. It had a white underbelly and a strange, floating halo-thing above its head. Its arms began to glow purple, a result of the Swords Dance being passed on through the Baton Pass.

"Haxorus, attack with Dragon Rush!"

Haxorus began to glow as he charged full on at the shell. The shell just remained there. As Haxorus's attack connected, it just passed right through the shell.

"Wha-what!?" Lyss said, shocked.

"You see…" Luzige began "A Shedinja is very unique in that only a certain few moves can hit it. Dragon moves are not these moves. Not in the slightest. Now, Shedinja, use Fury Swipes."

Shedinja rushed at Haxorus and its arms came down hard. The assult continued for a while before eventually ceasing.

"Haxorus, try using Giga Impact!"

Haxorus went for a full on charge once again, this time with as much power as he could muster. When he got to the Shedinja, he went right through again. He kept going and going until he crashed and felled a tree. When he recovered from hitting the tree, he looked behind to see the Shedinja there, waiting to attack.

"Shadow Ball."

With that command, Shedinja created a dark sphere and launched it at Haxorus. He was helpless against the attack and ended up being defeated the moment the attack connected.

"Return Haxorus…" Lyss said. "I'm down two, and he's only down one… I think it's time, go Togekiss! Use Air Slash!"

Lyss sent out her Large, white, egg-shaped Pokémon. When it entered the arena, it created a powerful gust of wind that was very, very sharp. It connected with Shedinja and it was felled immediately, despite taking no prior damage whatsoever."

"Good, I see you finally understood how to hurt Shedinja. You see, only moves that are super-effective against it, such as flying-type, can defeat it. It is completely immune to all other types, though. Its major drawback, however, is that it goes down in one hit when it is hit. Such an amazing battling style has its limitations after all."  
"Really!?" exclaimed Lyss. "I was just winging it, glad to see it actually worked for me this time!"

"Oh…" said Luzige, disappointed. "Well then, let's finish this. Go Galvantula."

Luzige sent out a large spider. It had hairy yellow legs and head and a blue, hairy backside. Its torso had a large purple stripe running down the center. All non-hairy parts of it were blue or gray. It had two large, blue eyes with four smaller eyes in-between them.

"Togekiss, Air Slash again!"

"Galvantula, use Electroweb"

Togekiss created the wind blades again. Galvantula fired a set of electric sparks from its mouth. They began to form and eventually became a large spider web made of electricity. The web took in Togekiss and begain electrocuting her. She wouldn't have escaped the horrible trap if it weren't for the air blades she created earlier. She got up, slightly weakened.

"Galvantula, use Electro Ball now."

Galvantula fired a large ball of electricity at Togekiss that hit it head on. Togekiss was very weak now. She was about to give up and lose, but then, Lyss had a crazy idea.

"Togekiss, use Metronome! I know it's crazy, but we need to win this!"

"Galvantula, use Bug Buzz."

Galvantula created a powerful sound wave that hurt everyone's ears. Togekiss kept on with its attack. The tips of its wing glowed blue as it wiggled them (if even possible for a Pokémon with wings to do so. It eventually stopped after a short while. The next thing that happened was so sudden. Togekiss slammed itself onto the ground, creating a white energy beam that ran through the ground. As the beam ran through the ground, leaving a large crack in the ground as it went on. Galvantula was hit by it, and went down instantly. The Metronome caused Fissure to be used.

"I see you had luck on your side. Sometimes, using luck can be the best strategy. Andrew, it is your turn now. Let us begin. Go Shuckle."

"All righty then, let's go Garchomp!"

My land shark appeared. On Luzige's side, there was a strange looking pokemon. It had a red shell with many holes in it. It had a long, slim yellow head with two simple, black eyes. It had four appendages coming out of four of the holes that looked exactly like the head, only they were featureless. It seemed harmless, but considering how tough Luzige had been able to make his Pokémon, I knew not to take it lightly.

"Garchomp, let's go with Dragon Rush!"

Garchomp glowed and ran full speed at the weird shell-thing. The Shuckle went into its shell as Garchomp began to assault it. The shell went flying and had a powerful crash. The dust cleared and the shell was unscathed. The Shuckle came out completely unharmed.

"Okay then… Garchomp, use Earthquake!"

Garchomp slammed its fins on the ground and created a large shockwave. Shuckle went back into its shell. When the tremors ended, Shuckle reappeared, completely unharmed.

"Well… Dammit, what the hell is going on here?"

"Simply put" Luzige began "Shuckle has been deemed the most defensive Pokémon in existence. Its shell is nearly impenetrable. You will have an incredibly difficult time defeating it. Shuckle, use Power Trick, and then, Bug Bite."

Shuckle began to glow a rainbow color. It was strange in that when it faded, something seemed very different and much more dangerous about the weird shell-thing. It then opened its mouth and bit down on Garchomp. Such a small bite would seem insignificant, but Garchomp was down in one hit.

"Wha-what!? Garchomp! Return. Let's go Blaziken! Use Blaze Kick!"

"Shuckle, use Stone Edge."

Shuckle raised a large amount of stones into the air. It launched them at Blaziken one at a time, causing Blaziken to dodge each one expertly. Knowing well that he easily took down my Garchomp, I had to be careful. Blaziken jumped up into the air and engulfed its legs in flames. It landed straight on the Shuckle. Then, there was a loud crack. The shell was broken and Shuckle had no time to go back in it, not that it would have helped much. Its defenses had been weakened. Must've been that Power Trick he used. I guess that great power came at a price.

"I see you saw through Power Trick's drawback. Shuckle's defense was severely weakened for the sake of increasing its attack power so drastically. It's time to get very serious now. I believe I shall use my most powerful Pokémon. Go Volcarona."

The pokemon that Luzige now had was a large, moth-like pokemon with six wings that were red and orange. It had a long, blue abdomen with a black center and a black face. There was white fuzz on its torso and it had four small legs. The wings had black spots all over it.

"Volcarona, use Quiver Dance, and then Heat Wave."

Volcarona began to flap its wings and glow green as its stats were raised. It then let loose a powerful wave of fire that went on throughout the field. Blaziken took the damage, but being a fire type, it didn't affect him too much.

"Alright Blaziken, attack with Sky Uppercut."

"Volcarona, use Hurricane."

Volcarona flapped its wings and a large gale was unleashed. Blaziken was severely damaged by it, but he kept going. Blaziken took his claw and made a fist. He then leaped straight up with his fist underneath Volcarona, carrying the two of them into the air. Volcarona took a significant amount of damage.

"Now, Volcarona, Hurricane again."

"Blaziken, use Focus Energy!"

As Volcarona let loose another powerful gale, Blaziken was cloaked in a red aura. It survived the powerful gale and dodged it skillfully, this time with not as much damage done. Blaziken prepared for my next order of attack.

"Blaziken, finish this with Blaze Kick, GO!"  
"Volcarona, use Fiery Dance."

Blaziken jumped in the air as his legs were cloaked in flames once again. Volcarona flapped its wings and then was surrounded in harsh looking flames. The two were going at each other with intense flames all around their bodies. They connected. Flames exploded everywhere.

For a while, the flames covered both of them. The fate of this battle was completely unknown. Eventually, the flames cleared. Both Pokémon were down. The heat of two fire type attacks was too much for both of them. Both Luzige and I recalled our Pokémon. It was down to this, both of us had our last Pokémon now.

"Yes, I was hoping this would happen" Luzige said. "I wanted to use this final Pokémon against you from the very beginning. It seems only fitting that I'll use him as my last Pokémon to use against your final Pokémon. Now, I shall use my brother's prized Pokémon against you. Go Scizor!"

Luzige sent out the red, ant-mantis Pokémon that once belonged to his brother. After only one day, he already seemed to have good control over him. I smirked as I saw Marcus's favorite pokemon, the one I battled, the one I delivered, now facing off against me once again. I knew exactly which Pokémon to use for this occasion.

"Go Bisharp!"

My chess Pokémon appeared before me and prepared himself for battle.

"Let's end this now, Scizor, use X-Scissor!"  
"Bisharp, Night Slash, GO!"

I smiled at how familiar this situation was. Bisharp's sythes on his arms glowed a dark purple. Scizor's claws glowed white as he put them in an x-shape. The two rushed toward at each other, ready to fight once again.

**A/N: Hey peeps, I'm sooooooooo sorry for taking so long to update. This chapter was originally intended to be much longer with a full six-vs-six battle for all three characters, but I had to shorten it due to my time constraints. Senior year, trying to graduate, ya know? Kinda focused on school :P Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter. Also, I'm changing my OC submissions to only Area Leaders except for Electric, Water, and Dark (cuz I have them planned out) and Bug and Dragon (obviously, already done). I would love to see a cool Steel or Rock type or any type really. Once again, I apologize for the long update, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! :D**


	11. Chapter 9: Sibling Rivalry

Chapter 9: Sibling Rivalry

Lyss, Kai, and I walked back through Nova HQ. I was admiring my new badge that I had gotten. It looked like a spider web with a fly caught on it. The badges of the Nova League were really intriguing. I had won that battle against Luzige with my Bisharp. It was almost exactly reminiscent of the battle Marcus and I had, except this time, I won. Guess Luzige couldn't quite get a grasp of Scizor just yet. Can't say I blame him, either. Marcus was an exceptional trainer. I really do miss him…

Anyway, as we walked, we went back to the check in gate. All of us swiped our cards. We registered together as a travelling group. Luckily, Kai, too, had fought Draco first, so we can all stay together no matter what. Good thing, too, because Team Cataclysm was really beginning to scare the crap out of me. I had no idea what they were up to. I had a feeling, though, that Lyss did. She seemed to know an awful lot about that group. So I decided to ask her. Yeah. Big Mistake.

"Hey, Lyss…" I began

"What's up, Andrew?" she said as we waited for the next area to be assigned to us.

"Well, you seem to know a lot about Team Cataclysm… Um, why is that?"

Silence. Lyss stared off in the distance. She seemed to be thinking about the question.

"I just…" she began

"Yes…?" I was growing a little impatient

"I just… You see my s… I have had a lot of terrible encounters with them. That's all."

"Wait… You're what? You started to say something that started with an S. What was it?"

"M-my sister…" Lyss said, tears welling up in her eyes now. "I lost my sister to Team Cataclysm"

Lyss turned away and began to cry.

"Oh… Lyss, I'm so sorry, I didn't…" I began, but I was soon cut off.

"Will you shut up, already?" Kai said harshly. "Can you not see that Lyss is upset? You wait here and get our assigned region. I'm going to go comfort her. Come, Lyss."

And with that, Kai took Lyss and the two went off somewhere. The name of the region popped up on the scream. The Darkness Region. Perpetual night. We were looking for a pale, long-haired, well dressed young man named Tristan, a dark type user. Guess it fit with the mood and what I just did.

Later

I walked down the the streets of the HQ. They were really rather large. It was a big place. I couldn't find where Lyss and Kai disappeared to. I guess I would call them later.

As I walked, I saw a familiar looking face. Well, three actually. I walked passed them as I tried to completely ignore them. Of all the people, I didn't want to be seen by them.

"Whoa, bro, is that you?" said the Greg, my oldest brother and sibling in general, as he took notice of me.

Greg was an all right guy. Never had a care in the world. Always laid back. Kind of a surfer dude. He always had on a blue Hawaiian shirt with a white floral pattern that he wore unbuttoned to expose some of his tanned chest. He had on a large pair of sunglasses, a straw, tourist hat, flip-flops, and a pair of khaki Bermuda shorts. His sandy, blonde hair was a mess and his strong face was in a comfortable smile. He started his journey in Unova, almost twelve years ago. Our family moved around a lot due to Dad's job as ranger. When it came time for him to begin his journey, Greg was in Unova, and there he stayed.

"No way!" squealed Hanna, the second oldest, and my oldest sister. "I can't believe it! Little Drew, you're actually here, too!"

Out of all my siblings, I think Hanna was my favorite. She was a typical girly-girl, but she always treated me just fine. She wore a pair of yellow sandals and a nice, pink sundress that showed a little more leg and cleavage than I'd like to see on my sister. Don't get me wrong, she's very attractive. She has long, straight brown hair, big, beautiful, blue eyes, and a really nice figure, but, it's my sister, I can't think of her in that kind of way. She was only about two years younger than Greg, but by the time it came for her to start her journey, our family was living in Sinnoh. So, she was powerful trainer from the Sinnoh Region. Of all my siblings, she treated me kindest of all of them. Not to say that Greg didn't treat me fairly, he just treated me like a little kid all the time. Hanna didn't. Now, it was the third person they were traveling with that I was dreading to see.

"They actually let a runt like you in this top league, huh?" sneered Skylar, the brother closest to my age. He was only three years older than me, but he always, ALWAYS looked down as if I were some stupid little kid. "If they let you in, then this league MUST be easy."

Skylar was a jerk. He always was. I hated him because he treated me so horribly. His neatly cut, short black hair was always so perfectly styled. His sharp, green eyes always judging and looking down on me. His condescending sneer always upon his face. He had on a light, green windbreaker, a darker green, simple t-shirt, a pair of black and green sneakers, and standard, un-ripped blue jeans. Skylar was what was known as a "New Unova" trainer. Whereas Greg was just a trainer from Unova, Skylar started after what was known as "The Great Unova Migration," where hundreds of Pokémon species not native to the region at the time Greg started his journey, all migrated to Unova for unkown reasons. We were living back in Unova at this time, and this was when Skylar started his journey. It was only one month before we moved to Hoenn, where Dad, Mom, and baby Kenzie live now and where I began my journey.

"Oh, come now, Skylar, be nice, we haven't seen little Drew in ages!" Hanna said, excitedly. She ran up and hugged me very tightly. Greg came up right behind her, and gave me a big pat on the back. It was true, I hadn't seen them in a while. If Skylar weren't travelling with them, I would've certainly said hi to them the instant I saw them. But, it seemed as if the three were travelling together.

"Ohmygosh, Drew, I can't BELIEVE, you're here! This means all four of us are here now! Oh, this is so great, we can all travel together, hang out, and it will be so much fun! Whaddya say, Drew, sound like fun!?" Hanna said incredibly fast. She was very excitable and a very, very fast talker.

"YEAH bro! That would be totally rad if you joined us, man!" Greg said in his surfer voice.

"Yeah, no, I don't think so. We don't need a weakling like him dragging us down" Skylar said, bluntly.

"Oh!? And why not, huh, Skylar!? You know, I haven't seen you guys in a long time, and here you are, being such an ASS. What the HELL is your problem!?" I screamed, Skylar was really pissing me off. I've dealt with his shit before, but now I'd had it. I prepared a pulled out my Friend Ball and sent out Ampharos.

"Oh, I see you want to prove yourself, huh? Alright then, let's go. Come on out, Flygon!"

Skylar sent out a large, green Pokémon, with triangular shaped wings, a long tail, and what appeared to be red goggles over its eyes. Ampharos readied himself for battle, as did the giant dragon.

"Alright, Power Gem, now Ampharos!"

"Flygon, use Dragonbreath!"

Ampharos shot a powerful beam from the jewel on his head. It was powerful, but not powerful enough to take on the Flygon. Flygon shot out a stream of purplish, flame something or other. It hit Ampharos head on. With the attack, Ampharos was moving very little now.

"Now, finish this with Earth Power Flygon."

The ground shook as spout of flame hit Ampharos. It was a combined fire, ground attack. Ampharos was out that quickly now. I recalled Ampharos. I went in to get another Pokémon, but Skylar stopped me.

"Don't even bother, we both know that I will win with just my Flygon" he said.

"Why you…"

"You what?" he asked. "Are you going to insult me? Well, let me teach you a lesson."

Skylar walked up to me. Suddenly, I was pinned to the ground by him. Greg and Hanna looked on in horror. Skylar made a fist and then slugged me right in the left eye. He then punched my jaw. Both parts began to swell. Greg and Hanna were shocked.

"Let's go. Leave him be, we have our own agenda." Skylar said as he stood up and walked off.

"That was harsh, bro, I'm so sorry" said Greg as he followed Skylar.

"Mom's defiantly going to hear about this. I'm so sorry Drew, but I need to go. I'll teach him better" Hanna said as tears formed in her eyes and walked away, following my two brothers.

Two hours later

I had finally found Lyss. I sat down next to her and handed her a Castaliacone as an apology. She gladly accepted and it happily. She was a lot more cheerful now.

"We're going to the Darkness Region next. We should get flashlights and go as soon as Kai gets back." I explained.

"Okay, cool. We got this!" Lyss said, back to her cheerful self.

"Hey, Lyss, I'm really sorry, I made you cry. I didn't mean to. I'm truly sorry" I said, as I turned my head to her. She took notice of my swollen jaw and my black eye for the first time.

"Whoa, Andrew, what happened to you?"

"Well, losing your sister made you cry. But, it's the opposite for me" I said. "Being with my siblings just makes me want to cry."

**A/N: Haha, long night, and I couldn't sleep, so I wrote and posted a new chapter only a few hours after my other one! I'm still accepting Area Leader OCs! I hope you guys are still enjoying my story. :) **


	12. Chapter 10: Perpetual Night

Chapter 10: Perpetual Night

The scenery around us was very eerie. All the trees were dead with no leaves on them. The ground was a creepy gray color. There were cliffs everywhere that were jagged and sharp; it looked like you could fall to your death from them. Most importantly, there was little light. We were travelling under a New Moon, so there wasn't even moonlight to guide. We had to be very careful and watch where we stepped.

Lyss was holding on to my arm really tightly. She seemed pretty freaked out by all the dangerous looking cliffs and us not knowing where we were going. I was pretty freaked out by it too, but I wasn't about to let it show. Kai was moving right on ahead of us. Nothing seemed to scare her. Eventually, we decided to stop to rest for the… well, night, I guess.

"Do you know the legend of the nightmare bringer?" Kai asked as I go the fire going

"No, I haven't." I said

"I don't think I want to…" said Lyss

"Well that's too bad, because I'm telling it. A long time ago, there was a Pokémon that came out on nights of a new moon, just like tonight. It was said to be black as night, with the appearance of ghost. It had piercing blue eyes and a white, fog-like head. It greatly resembles a shadow. It is said that this Pokémon moves along swiftly in the shadows. It goes out to defend itself and its territory. Whenever it feels threatened, it puts victims in a deep slumber. Its victims are then said to suffer the most horrible of nightmares. Its name… is Darkari."

"That's a scary sounding Pokémon..." whined Lyss

"Yeah, I defiantly wouldn't wanna mess with it." I said

"Yes, defiantly. But that is why it is called a legendary Pokémon. No one knows if it exists or not."

"That's true…" I said. "But what about Celebi? Celebi turned out to be real."

"Yeah…" said Lyss "Do you think Team Cataclysm is after this Darkarai too?"

"Who knows what they're up to…" Kai said. "What's important now is that we get some rest."

"Yeah, we should, night Lyss, night Kai" I said as I climbed into my sleeping bag

"Night" the two girls said

***A few hours later***

"Andrew… Andrew, wake up… Andrew!"

I woke up, a little startled, to see who had woken me up. It was Lyss.

"Wha-who, what?" I asked kinda stupidly in the midst of my sleepy confusion.

"Oh… Sorry, I just, was scared and couldn't sleep. It's all this darkness, it has me scared."

"Well, I'm pretty sure it's fine. I mean, it's not like we're gonna get swallowed up by the darkness or anything."

"But still…"

"Oh, okay, I'll stay up with you."

I got up and out of my sleeping bag and sat next to Lyss by our dying fire. She scooted closer as we watched the small fire.

"You know, I'm surprised I'm still even in this competition" she said.

"Why?" I asked. "You're a fantastic trainer"

"But this competition is so rough. I was sure Luzige would've beaten me for sure. And if he was that tough, and Draco was incredibly tough, too, it just makes me wonder what the other Area Leaders are like. You know?"

"Yeah, I get ya. It is tough. Really tough. Draco put a such a tough fight. And then Luzige's strategy was hard to beat. Makes me think this next guy is going to be incredibly tough."

"Yeah…" she said.

We sat there in silence for a while. She leaned on my shoulder as we watched the remainder of the fire die.

Soon, I heard the grass rustle. I checked to see if Lyss was awake. She had fallen asleep. I gently lowered her head to the grass and covered her with a blanket. I then got up to investigate the sound.

I walked on in the darkness, and then heard it again. I was following the direction of the noise now. It was pretty ominous considering the darkness around me. It didn't sound like a Pokémon, as wild pokemon were supposed to be rare here in Nova. Although, since I had run into Celebi, I was beginning to wonder about other legendary Pokémon that could have taken up residency here.

Suddenly, I collided with someone. We both went tumbling to the ground. I couldn't really see, but I could tell he was male. As soon as I got up, he ran. I ran after him. I wanted to know what someone was doing here and why he was being so suspicious.

"All right, go Ampharos, you too Blaziken, I need some light!"

I sent out Amphaaros and Blaziken. Ampharos's jewels began to glow. Blaziken lit small fires in his claws. This provided me with a good amount of light now. We went on after the man. I could hear his feet rustling the grass as he ran. Soon, we came to a cliff. He couldn't do anything now. So he turned and I finally got a good look at him. He was wearing all black. Black suit, black tie, black shirt, black gloves, black boots, and black pants. He had on an all black mask. The only thing on him that wasn't black was the white hourglass symbol on his mask. He must be a high ranking official in Team Cataclysm.

"Seems you have me, boy" he said. "In that case let me introduce myself. I am Master Black. I lead the Unova branch of Team Cataclysm. Do not fear me at the moment, though, for I am only her to do reconnaissance of the area, I have brought no underlings with me."

"Team Cataclysm scum is still Team Cataclysm scum. I'm going to defeat you and make sure you never mess with me again." I said

"Well, if that's how you feel, boy, then we shall do battle. Go Beheeyem."

I couldn't see much, but I could make out a brown pokemon with a strange shaped head. It had long arms, each with only three fingers, one red, one yellow, one green, and short, stubby legs. It had strange black markings on its head and light-brown dots along its chest, kinda like a trench coat.

"All right, it's your time to shine Gardevoir!"

"Beheeyem use Psychic!"

"Gardevoir, Psychic, too!"

It was hard to see, but both Pokémon were cloaked in a blue aura. They were both lifted into the air, and they both appeared to be in pain. Both shot down, and both reappeared, ready to fight.

"Gardevoir, Hypnosis!"

"Beheyeem, dodge, and then use Thunderbolt!"

Gardevoir let out a faint pulse. Beheeyem expertly dodged it and then let out a bolt of electricity. It hit Gardevoir head on. Gardevoir got up, still determined to fight despite the damage she sustained.

"Gardevoir, use Shadow Ball!"

"Beheeyem, use Synchronoise!"

Gardevoir sent out a dark ball of energy and fired it at Beheeyem. Beheeyem let out a loud noise that really hurt Gardevoir as the ball collided with Beheeyem.

Two dark orbs then came and hit Beheeyem and Gardevoir. There was no trainer command, so where it came from, I had no idea. The dark orbs made contact with the two Pokémon, and they were instantly put to sleep.

"Ooooh, yes! I see we have disturbed his territory! Maybe I can get ahead of schedule by capturing him now!" exclaimed Master Black.

"Wha- who- is he?" I said

"The mighty Darkarai has come to us! It shall be Team Cataclysm's soon!"

Then, the shadow pokemon Kai had described earlier appeared. Master Black prepared a poké ball for capture. He then sent out a powerful looking Volcarona. I sent had Blaziken ready to fight Master Black off. Darkarai had other plans.

Darkarai appeared behind the two of us. We both turned to see him readying two more of those dark orbs he used to put our psychic Pokémon to sleep. He launched them at us. Master Black expertly dodged it. That couldn't be said about me, though. I had no idea what going on. So, I foolishly let the attack hit me. I started to fall. I fell to the ground with a loud thud. I had been asleep long before then. Since the attack made contact with me, in fact. Then, the nightmares began.

**A/N: Hey, hey fans! I hope you enjoy this next chapter! And remember, I'm still taking Area Leader OC requests, just PM me! Also, I'd love to hear what y'all think about the story, any feedback or anything please!**


	13. Chapter 11: Darkness

Chapter 11: Darkness

Hey guys! Its Lyss! First of all, I can't believe Andrew keeps a dairy. He's been writing in this thing every day since he was on the boat. This is sooooo cool. I've been reading every entry! I am totally going to use this against him at one point or another! Teehee!

Anyways, Andrew's been gone awhile, and it's really beginning to worry me. Like, at least four hours now. I think I need to wake up Kai and go look for him. I mean, what if something bad happened to him. Or worse, Team Cataclysm got to him. We need to go, like, now!

So, yeah, here's my account of what happened when Andrew disappeared.

"Come on Kai, we need to go, what if Andrew's in trouble!" I said, hurrying on ahead. I had my Ninetales out and she was providing me with some light in this dark area.

"I know, I know!" She said trying to catch up. Her Pachirisu was generating electricity to help Ninetales give us some light.

We walked around, not knowing where we were going. Even with our Pokémon helping us, it was still too dark to see where we were headed. At one point, I stepped off a cliff. Thank Arceus for Kai's quick reflexes, or else I would've been a goner. I know Andrew always mentions his fear of girls (yet, he still travels with us, odd), so here's my biggest fear: heights.

"Thanks for that" I panted.

"No *pant* problem *pant*" Kai breathed, tired from trying to save me. Now, she's strong, and I'm not a heavy person, but the sheer terror of the situation got to us both.

"Now, where's Andrew?" I whined

"I don't know, but we need to hurry and find him. Even I'm beginning to worry, and that says a lot. I'm not normally one to worry."

We continued walking in the darkness. There really was nothing much we could do. He was lost in a world of darkness. Where is he?

After what seemed like endless wandering, we came across something strange. There was a field that looked like it had just seen battle. There was singed grass and foot prints of Pokémon battling. Then, we saw it. There was a yellow Pokémon that was glowing. It looked like a lighthouse and had a jewel on its head and a larger one on its tail.

"Hey, is that Andrew's Ampharos?" I asked

"Yeah… I think it is…" Kai responded.

We approached the Ampharos. He looked in our direction and lit up brighter. He appeared worried.

"Ampharos, what's wrong?" Kai asked

Ampharos began to make a ton of gestures and sounds as if he was trying to tell us a story. His stubby arms were flailing in all directions, his voice getting higher, and his tail was glowing brighter and brighter. Kai paid close attention to what he was doing and I just stood there, confused by wht was going on.

"Okay, so let me get this straight: Andrew chased down a royal of Team Cataclysm, they fought , and then Darkrai appeared, put him to sleep, the Cataclysm Royal captured Darkrai, and then he took Andrew and ran off?" Kai summed it up well.

"Whoa, that's crazy…. I didn't know you could talk to Pokémon Kai!" I said amazed.

"Ugh, Lyss, that's not the important thing right now" Kai said, obviously a little upset. "We need to find Andrew, who knows what Team Cataclysm will do with him."

"That's true…"

"Okay, Ampharos, can you lead us in the direction that they went?"

"Amph!" Ampharos exclaimed as we began to follow the glow of his tail into the darkness.

"I see…" said a mysterious voice. "So this is where Team Cataclysm is hanging out, huh? Guess I should tell the others about this."

The voice was really random, sounded almost like a surfer dude, but with what he said, we knew we were where we needed to be.

"Excuse me? Did you say that this is Team Cataclysm's hideout?" I asked. I needed to know.

"WHOA! Little chicks, don't go scarin' me like that. I would've sent out my Pokémon, and trust me, my team is pretty tough to beat, I'm telling you" he said.

"Oh, sorry, it's just, we were looking for Team Cataclysm, too. They took our friend. We found his Ampharos, and that's how we were led here." I explained

"Whoa… kidnapping, that's totally not rad. I get ya little chicks. I'm travelling with two of my siblings. I think we can help you. The name's Greg. I'm an 'Old Unova' trainer. My sis, Hanna is from Sinnoh, and my bro is a 'New Unova' trainer. Skylar's the one you really want to help, he's one of those prodigies. He's, well, kind of full of it."

"Well then, Greg, will you and your siblings please help us rescue our friend from Team Cataclysm?" Kai asked. "We won't be able to do it on our own, you know."

Greg walked off. We followed him. We walked for about twenty minutes until we came across a small fire. There, we finally got a good look at the man helping us. He wore a blue Hawaiian shirt with a white floral pattern, a straw hat, large sunglasses despite the darkness, flip-flops and khaki Bermuda shorts. He had sandy blonde hair and strong, good looking face with a nice smile. He looked a a few years older than us.

"Who are they, Greg?" asked a girl, also quite a few years older than us. She was wearing a pink sundress with yellow sandals. She had long, straight brown hair, and big blue eyes. Even in the fire-light, I could tell she was the girl that got attention from many, many boys. I was already jealous, and I didn't even know her.

"These chicks are trying to rescue their pal from Team Cataclysm, and I figured we oughta help them" said Greg.

"Did you locate their hideout, Greg? We need that information first" said another, much younger boy. He had clean cut black hair, a light green windbreaker, a light green t-shirt, plain blue jeans. He seemed a lot closer to our age than the other two, maybe about two years or so older.

"Don't doubt me, Sky. Of course I found it, and with two more chicks with us, I figure we can attack the base now" Greg explained.

"Greg's right" said the girl. "We can try and get in with this many people. Between us, we have thirty good, powerful Pokémon."

"It's not that simple, Hanna!" the boy said. "Team Cataclysm is a serious threat and very dangerous. If one of us is hurt, there's nothing much we can do."

"Excuse me…" I said, interrupting the siblings "but our friend is in danger, and we have no idea what Team Cataclysm is doing to him. We would really appreciate your help, but even if you don't help us, we're going anyways."

"Right" Kai said, supporting me. "We are worried about him. We need to get him back before something terrible happens. If you're not going to help us, we'll be going now, come on Lyss."

"Well, I can't let two chicks like you go in alone, I'm coming with ya." Greg said.

"Right, it's dangerous, I'll join you too" said Hanna. "Are you coming Skylar?"

"Ugh, fine. You all would be dead without me anyways." Said Skylar

"In that case, let's get going!" I said

All five of us set out in the direction that Greg indicated the hideout was. We all set foot in the darkness towards the unknown of Team Cataclysm. The darkness awaited us. Andrew, we're coming!

**A/N: Hey! So, long absence, sorry, been busy with school and stuff, haha. SO I got an ice type and steel type submission, so now I have Ice, Steel, Water, Electric, Dark, Dragon, and Bug, so all other types are appreciated. PS, Girls can be Area Leaders too (hint hint, considering this ration up here is 6 guys to 1 girl). Here's the next chapter, I did something new here, hope you enjoy! **


	14. Chapter 12: Breaking In

Chapter 12: Breaking In

"Alright Emboar, break down this door!" Greg said to his bipedal, Chinese-like pic with a flaming beard and oversized arms. It punched the thick metal door three times, and it went down, completely bent and broken.

"Okay, we're in. Now, we'll probably encounter some of their grunts here" Skylar explained. "They're the easy stuff; we can handle them unless they come in large numbers. We're looking for their leader, who is likely deep within the building. Your friend is likely there, too."

"Okay" I said. "Do we have a plan?"

"Yes" Skylar said. "We are sticking together unless we are forced to separate."

"Sounds good to me" Kai said. "Now, let's all send out a Pokémon of ours to help us."

"I already have Emboar here" said Greg.

"Okay, I'll use Lopunny!" Hanna said, as she sent out a brown, bunny Pokémon with tufts of cream colored fur on its ears, arms, legs, and feet. Overall, an elegant Pokémon.

"Right" Kai said. "Go Mismagius!" Kai sent out a purple ghost pokemon. It looked like it had a large witch's hat on and it had lavender along its edges. It had no appendages, floated, and had a red jewel necklace around its neck.

"My turn, go Blastoise!" I said, sending out my turtle Pokémon.

"Alright, go Zoroark! Use your illusion to disguise us as Team Cataclysm members!" Skylar ordered. He sent out a gray, fox Pokémon with a large red mane in back with black tips. Its eyes began to glow as a mist settled over us. What this did, I had no idea.

"With Zoroark's illusion ability, we appear to be Team Cataclysm members. It works to an extent. As long as we don't make contact with another person outside of the cloud, we'll be safe" Skylar explained. "Now, be very careful as we search."

As we walked through the hallways, we passed by numerous cataclysm grunts. They seemed to be paying no attention to what the others were doing. I did notice something interesting about them, though. Every other villainous team I've seen, like Team Rocket and Team Galactic, have had cookie cutter grunts. I mean, they all look exactly the same and have the same personality. Plasma, Magma, Aqua, and even Cipher are guilty of this. Every grunt looks exactly the same. They all say the same nonsense that their leader has brainwashed them to say. They're all just… the same person in multiple bodies. They all even have the same hair and eye color! It's really creepy… But with Team Cataclysm, it's different. Every grunt is different from one another. Yeah, they all have on that same stupid jacket with that hourglass, but each person is different. I saw gingers, blondes, brunettes, people with pale skin, people with dark skin, tall people, short people, and all sorts of different people. They all seemed to keep their identity. They weren't those cookie cutter grunts. Made me wonder what… Never mind.

The five of us walked around shrouded by this mist that apparently disguised us. I knew Zoroarks were masters of illusion. Guess it was lucky we had one. We walked along the corridors for a while; it was a pretty darn big building. We passed several grunts on duty. They seemed oblivious to us, so I knew Zoroark was doing what he does best.

Everything was going smoothly until…. *Thud*

"Watch where you're… eh? You, you're not a member!" said a large, intimidating grunt. "How did you get in here?"

"I, uh, well, you see…" I sputtered. I was nervous, I totally blew our cover.

"Shit, let's go!" Skylar said, grabbing me.

"Oh no you kids don't!" said the grunt. "Let's go Tentacruel!"

"Alright, then, you wanna pick a fight?" asked Greg.

"Greg, what are you doing, we're supposed to stay together!" Hanna said

"I's alright sis" Greg said. "Trust me, he's gonna be easy, but he's also gonna call backup, I'll hold them off as long as I can, got it?"

"Okay…" Hanna said. "But you better be back outside when we're done here!"

"You got it sis, just get these two chicks' friend, ya hear?"

"We're on it" Skylar said. "Now let's move!"

"Alright, Emboar, just hang tight a moment, this isn't a good one for you. How 'bout Galvantula? Let's go!"

The last thing I saw as we turned the corner was Greg's electric spider battling the poison jellyfish. He looked back, flashed a smile, and gave us a thumbs up. More grunts joined the battle and soon he had his hands full, but he was fighting.

"Will he be alright?" Kai asked

"Of course!" Hanna exclaimed. "He's the Old Unova regional champ 6 years running! He'll be just fine!"

"Well, if you say so…" Kai said. "Guess we need to do him a favor and find Andrew fast."

Skylar stopped.

"Andrew? You mean to tell me that little brat got himself captured by Team Cataclysm?"

"Skylar! Don't be like that! Drew's in trouble, and you know he'd help you if you were in the same predicatment!"

"Shut up Hanna! He should've thought about all this before getting himself captured, the little dumbass!"

"Skylar, you are being really immature! Our little brother is in danger!"

"Little brother!?" Kai and I said in unison.

"Hardly" Skylar spat. "He needs to grow up a little. Get out of this himself."

"Skylar!" Hanna's voice was getting louder. "You are being really immature! If you're not going to help, fine! Just leave! But good luck getting out of here by yourself!"

"I don't need any of you anyways" Skylar said, going in the opposite direction, his Zoroark following him.

"Excuse me…" Kai interrupted. "I don't know what Andrew did to you, but he's in trouble now, so we would greatly appreciate it if you two stop bickering and help us find him! He needs you, and that's that. He is also your brother, which should add importance to this rescue operation. Do you understand me!?" Her voice was intense, scary even. I had never heard her this mad before.

"Screw it" Skylar said. "You all can do this without me." And with that Skylar and his Zoroark walked off. They turned the corner and we didn't see them again.

"Ugh! That Skylar! What an arrogant little… ARGH!" Hanna screamed.

The three of us, now, all started rushing down the corridor to find the heart of the building where leader would be. We turned and turned. Oddly, we didn't see any more grunts. I guess Greg was doing a good job at holding them off.

Finally, we reached a steel door at the center of the building. It was locked tight and needed a pass code to get in.

"Great…." I moaned. "We can't get in…"

"We just gotta use our Pokémon!" said Hanna

"How so?" Kai asked.

"Simple. Okay, first, Kai, tell your Mismagius to go through the door. Having a ghost pokemon go through it will temporarily cause the key pad to malfunction."

"Got it. Mismagius, go through the door"

The ghost passed through the door with relative ease. When she did, it suddenly shut down.

"Next, Lyss, I hope your Blastoise is well trained, because that door needs to come down."

"He is, he can use Skull Bash quite well"

"Good, have him use it while I weaken the door with Lopunny."

"'Kay! Blastoise you heard her, Skull Bash!"

"Lopunny, Hi Jump Kick!"

Blastoise's head lowered as he began charging up power. Lopunny hit the door with a powerful kick. Then again. And again. The door was heavily dented now. Blastoise's attack was ready. Lopunny delivered one final kick. Blastoise came in and bashed the door with his head, knocking it clean off its hinges. Mismagius was on the other side, looking triumphant. Two grunts were there, looking scared for their lives.

"What do you two think you're doing?" asked a voice. "Dispose of them."

"Y-yes Master B-black!" They both said, sending out two Pokémon. Sawk and Throh. Seemed appropriate for the moment.

"Haha!" Hanna laughed. "This is nothing! We must be getting close! Kai, Lyss, go on, I'm pretty sure he's just behind that door there. These two will be nothing!"

"Are you sure, Hanna?" Kai asked. "I'll be more than glad to assist you in this…"

"No no, please!" She giggled. "Allow me, this ought to be fun!"

"Alright then, c'mon Lyss!"

"Right!"

"Okay boys…" Hanna said, turning to the grunts. "You're dealing with me and my Pokémon now. Lopunny here is no push over. And, since this is a double battle, you're dealing with my queen, too. Vespiquen that is!"

Hanna had her bunny and her queen bee fighting the red and blue karate themed pokemon. She was winning with relative ease. She had on a big smile the whole time. It was nothing for her. Kai and I quickly made it to the door on the other side, miraculously, I might add, without getting hit by any attacks.

We busted down the door. On the other side we saw a man dressed in all black. Black slacks, black suit, black shirt, black tie, black gloves, black boots, black mask. The only thing on him that wasn't black was the hourglass insignia on his mask, representing he was a Team Cataclysm royalty.

"You must be Master Black" I said.

"Indeed, I am. I commend you on finding me here" he said, calmly.

"Cut the crap!" Kai yelled. "Where's our friend! We know you have him!"

"Oh? You mean, this friend?"

As he said that, a large, blue eel pokemon slithered out. It had yellos spots, red eyes, claws, a gaping mouth, and Andrew in its arms. Through some of the spots, I could see electricity running through the body of the eel thing. I tried to get closer.

"Ah uh uh!" Master black cautioned. "Any closer, and your friend here is going to get it from my Eelektross. Thousands of volts just waiting to surge through his body."

"You wouldn't dare!" Kai exclaimed.

"Try me!" The man dressed in black said.

"Mismagius, go, Shadow Ball"

"Eelektross, Discharge."

Mismagius prepared her attack, when suddenly the Eelektross let out a large amount of energy. Andrew took a good amount of it. It let go of him and he lay on the floor. I could see sparks still coming from him occasionally.

"Why you …!" Kai began, but Master Black was out the window now.

"We're done with him" he explained. "He was put to sleep by Darkrai anyways, he won't be getting up for a long time. We needed him to study the effects of Darkrai's nightmares, and it worked splendidly! He have now captured Darkrai and know how to use his nightmares effectively! Good luck waking the boy up! Haha!"

…and with that, he was gone.

I rushed to Andrew's side, tears welling up in my eyes. I held him up. He trembled. I couldn't tell if it was from the electricity or his nightmares. He was still breathing. I held him close and cried.

"C'mon, we need to go" a familiar, male voice said.

"Bu-but…" I sobbed

"It's okay, he's coming too" Skylar said, pulling me to my feet. He lifted Andrew onto his back and begn to carry him out the door. "You two coming or what?"

"Y-yeah…" I sobbed

"O-of course" complied a shocked Kai. I don't blame her. Skylar left in a fit about rescuing his brother, and now, here he was, helping us carry him out of there. How odd.

"Well, it may not be as effective as the Lunar Wing or Cresselia, but I think it can work on a smaller scale." Greg said. We had all gotten out of there alive, and that Team Cataclysm hideout was now abandoned.

"You think?" Skylar asked. "Let's go through with it, it's our only shot."

"'Kay then, Musharna, c'mon out!"

Greg sent out a weird pokemon that was curled up like a ball. It was pink on top and purple on bottom. It had a short, pink snout and its eyes were closed. There was a pink mist coming from it.

"This…" Greg explained "is Musharna. She's good with dreams and stuff. She can wake anyone up. She hates the taste of nightmares, but, I'm afraid, for Andrew's sake, she'll have to go through with it for a bit."

""Mush!" Musharna chimed

"'Kay, ready Musharna? Use Dream Eater on Andrew! Get him out of Darkrai's spell!"

Musharna was extracting something from Andrew's head and eating. She kept going for a long, long time. Eventually she stopped. She shuddered. Her mist suddenly displayed several images, some I couldn't make out. Others I could. These Included Andrew falling from a large skyscraper, a man covered in blood, an image of Team Cataclysm, the image of Marcus dying in Andrew's arms, and finally, a picture of Skylar sneering. It was all very confusing, but this must have all been included in Andrew's nightmare, which was now finally coming to an end.

We sat there waiting to see if we would get results. It seemed endless. Finally, Andrew woke up.

"Wha-hey…" he said sleepily

"Andrew!" I exclaimed. I jumped right on him and gave him a big hug. I kissed him on the cheek, but then got back up, noticing how red he, and, surprisingly, me, got.

"Drew! You're okay!" Hanna jumped up and down in joy.

"Good on ya man!" Greg said

"Thank goodness…" Kai breathed

Then Skylar stepped up. Silence. He looked Andrew in the eye.

"Don't get yourself into another predicament again" he said, and walked off

"Well, I didn't think I was asleep for that long…" Andrew began

"Oh goodness, do we have a lot to tell you…" I began. And with that, we all recounted to Andrew what happened after Darkrai attacked him.

**A/N: Whoo, yeah! New chapter! Hope you guys like! Okay, so, now I've gotten female ocs to balance out the male ones, so now, any, male OR female Area Leader guys! Also, I now have Dragon, Bug, Dark, Water, Electric, Ice, Fighting, Steel, Psychic, and Flying! So just seven more Area Leaders! That means I still need Fire, Grass, Rock, Ground, Poison, Ghost, and Normal! So far I have 6 male and 4 female, so let's keep it mostly even in gender for the area leaders! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! **


	15. Chapter 13: The Kindness in Sorrow

Chapter 13: The Kindness in Sorrow

Wow, okay, gee, thanks Lyss… Going through my things, and then she actually wrote in my journal!? And yes, it IS a Journal, NOT a diary! Gosh, what I write in here is kinda private. I mean, I hope to one day publish my record in the hopes that someone will find it interesting, but, geez, at the moment, this is meant for my eyes only….

Well, at least I can look back at those two entries and read what went down when I was under Darkrai's spell… Anyway, back to the Darkness Region.

* * *

We said goodbye to Hanna and Greg. Skylar went off ahead of them. I wonder why they travel with him… Must be because he needs to be kept under constant watch. He can get a little… crazy at times. And arrogant. But that's just Skylar, I guess.

I figured we had wasted enough time with the whole Team Cataclysm rescue operation/me being in a coma thanks to Darkrai thing. About two days. Not to mention we had been traveling for two days before that. We only had three days left. But, in a place that was nothing but darkness with very limited vision, where could we possibly begin to look?

"I think we should head North" Kai said

"Why north?" I asked her

"Well, it seems that's the only way we haven't been here, so I just kinda figured" Kai responded

"I guess that makes sense" Lyss said, as we all headed in that direction.

We kept wandering on and on for what seemed like hours. It eventually we reached a strange spot in the forest of darkness. It opened up into a field. Like the rest of the area, the field was pitch black. However, from the middle of the field came light. It was the light of a small fire. We headed towards the fire.

"Hello friends" a warm voice sitting next to the fire said. We looked and saw the young man sitting at the fire. He was wearing a pitch black suit coat and pants with a white button up shirt and blood red tie. His skin was incredibly pale and his hair jet black hair was grown long past his neck, with a long bang covering his right eye. His left eye was visible and was an erie red color. "Come sit by the fire with me. I know its dark, so staying here could be good for all of us." His strange appearance was contrasted with his kind, warm voice.

"Ok, thanks a lot. I'm Andrew, this is Kai, and that's Lyss." I said, introducing all of us

"Greetings Andrew, Kai, and Lyss, I am Tristan. What brings you this deep in the dark forest?" Tristan asked

"Well" Lyss said "We're looking for the Area Leader. We only have, like, one day left for all three of us to beat him and get the badge here"

"Right. We got a little sidetracked with Team Cataclysm" Kai explained.

"Well then, you're in luck." Tristan said "Because it looks like I can battle you three right now, if you so wish."

All three of us looked at him in disbelief. Here we were, just sitting by the fire with the Area Leader. He never mentioned that it was him, he just invited us over and accepted our challenge.

"uh.. Okay, let's get going then! Right now!" I exclaimed, eager to start.

"Very good then. Here's how it works. I will challenge you three all at once. The catch is that you can only use one Pokemon, and that Pokemon can only focus on one of my Pokemon. So, Andrew, send out your a Pokemon."

"Uh.. Ok, go Blaziken!"

"Right, go Houndoom." Tristan sent out a black dog with a red muzzle and long, curled white horns and white bone markings all along its body. "Now, for example, Andrew's Blaziken can only fight against my Houndoom. But, since this is a demonstration, and since we showed our pokemon to each other early, I ask that you not use Blaziken and I will not use Houndoom in this battle, just to avoid any advanced planning. Now, each of you send out a pokemon, and I shall send out three of my own and we shall begin... as soon as I put out this fire" Tristan finished explaining the rules to us and began to try and put out the fire. When he finished with the fire, he directed us to one side of the field and got himself on the other side. It was pitch black again.

"Alright" Kai said, "I guess I'll go with Pidgeot." Kai sent out her large, tan bird with a dark brown back and flowing pink and yellow feathers.

"Very good. I too will choose a bird Pokemon then. Go, Honchkrow." Tristan sent out a small, black bird with a tuft of white feathers on its puffed up chest. It looked as if the bird had a large, black fedora on its head.

"My turn then! Go Lucario!" Lyss exclaimed sending out her bipedal dog Pokemon.

"Good choice. I will use Scrafty then." Tristan said as he sent out an orange bipedal lizard Pokemon with what appeared to be a yellow hood and baggy yellow pants and large, dark orange mohawk on its head.

"Alright then, lets go Ampharos!" I said as I sent out my trusty electric type Pokemon.

"Interesting" Tristan noted. "I guess I will use Absol." A white furred, quadrupedal Pokemon with white fur, a black face, black claws, a black tail, and a single black horn jutting out from the top left part of its head. "And with this, let us begin. Honchkrow, you will only attack Pidgeot. Scrafty, you will only attack Lucario, and Absol, you will only attack Ampharos. Now, Honchkrow, use Wing Attack, Scrafty, use Brick Break, and Absol, use Faint Attack."

Honchkrow's wings began to glow as it launched at Pidgeot. Scrafty's hand glowed as it began to chop at Lucario. Absol disappeared into the shadows and reappeared behind Ampharos and threw a powerful punch, hurting Ampharos.

Now... As cool as the whole battle was, since this is MY journal, I'll recount Ampharos versus Absol. As much as a care for Kai and Lyss, it was really hard for me to focus on their battles while I was in the middle of my own. How Tristan did it and still managed to put up an incredible fight for each of us is beyond me. I feel that had we each faced him one on one, none of us would've won against him. His attention to details, especially in the dark, is incredible. Anyways, back to the battle.

Absol had used its Faint Attack to sneak up behind Ampharos and throw a powerful sucker punch. Already, Ampharos was injured, and the battle had just begun.

"Now, Absol, step back and use Swords Dance." Absol moved backwards and began to concentrate its energy. It was dark and hard to see, but I could tell it was increasing the strength of its attacks."

"Ampharos, use Thunderpunch, go!" Ampharos charged a large amount of electricity in its fist and charged at were it thought Absol was, but, even though the electricity gave him light, he couldn't see where Absol was.

"Now Absol, Night Slash!" Absol appeared from the darkness and lunged at Ampharos, slashing him, and then disappeared right back into the darkness. By this time, Lyss had won her battle.

"I see..." I thought to myself "So Absol attacks, then covers itself back in the darkness. Because it is a dark type, it can see Ampharos, but Ampharos can't see it. Hmmm..."

"Absol, use Night Slash again!" Absol appeared and began to lunge at Ampharos again

"Ampharos, quickly, use Flash!" As Absol lunged, the jewel on Ampharos's tail lit up and let out a blinding light. Absol's attack never connected. Now there was no more darkness around us. Ampharos's tail generated so much light that Absol couldn't hide in the shadows anymore. Kai had just finished her battle.

"Very good, getting rid of Absol's cover. But that's not all the Advantage that Absol has. Go, Absol, charge up the whirlwinds!" Two large whirlwinds started forming around Absol.

"Ampharos, use Charge!" A large amount of electricity formed around Ampharos as he began to store it in his body. His next electric attack would be a powerful one.

"Now, Absol, Razor Wind!"

"Ampharos, use Discharge!"

The two whirlwinds split off into many sharp wind blades and flew at Ampharos. Ampharos let the stored electricity out in a powerful electric attack. The electricty connected with Absol, completely obliterating most of the wind blades. One did cut Ampharos pretty badly, but he went through it. Absol was now pretty badly injured.

"Absol, use Double Team!" Absol began to move at a fast pace. He then moved so fast that it appeared as if several copies of it surrounded Ampharos. "Now, charge up the whirlwinds again"

"Ampharos, use Signal Beam!"

Whirlwinds appeared all around Ampharos as Ampharos fired a rainbow beam from the jewel on his forehead. It his several of the copies, causing them to disappear. However, the wind blades still came from multiple directions, hitting Ampharos from all over. Ampharos went down. He struggled to get back up. He had cuts from all sides. The copies that he had gotten rid of restored themselves. It seemed rather hopeless at this point, like my whole Nova challenge would've been ended right there. But it didn't.

"Ampharos, try Discharge again!"

"Absol, use Night Slash once more!"

All of the Absol copies lunged at Ampharos as he let loose a large amount of electricity once again. The electricity spread out further and further, encompassing a large area around him. All of the Absol clones disappeared and, by the time the electricity all cleared, the real Absol was struggling to get up.

Ampharos and Absol faced each other, both now exhausted from their difficult fight. They stared each other down, both of them knowing that the next attack was going to decide the victor.

"Absol, finish this with Faint Attack!"

"Ampharos, lets end this with Thunderpunch!"

Absol disappeared and reappeared behind Ampharos, ready to deliver the finishing sucker punch. However, Ampharos turned around and hit Absol with its electrically charged fist. Absol fell to the ground, sparks of electricity in its fur, unmoving.

"Well, all three of you battled splendidly!" Tristan said, returning his Absol and walking towards us.

"Thanks, I'm surprised that, even though your attention was divided, you still managed to command all of your Pokemon in three separate battles. It truly was remarkable to fight a trainer of your caliber." Kai said as she accepted her badge.

"Yeah, I was really surprised! That Scrafty was tough and you weren't even fully paying attention to our battle, I guess that's why I won first!" Lyss chattered as she took her badge.

"Yeah, I guess you got to really focusing with me because those two won. But still, its remarkable." I said as I gladly accepted my hard earned badge. I looked at the badge and it appeared to be a sun that was blacked out, like a solar eclipse.

"Just so, you three fought hard and won those badges." Tristan said, a kind smile settling upon his face. "Now, would you three please join me around the fire again? I'm sure we're all tired.

Tristan started building a fire again and, once he got it lit, I recalled Ampharos, leaving the only light left coming from the fire. The four of us settled around the fire and Tristan began passing around some hot dogs for us to roast upon the fire.

"Now, if you don't mind me asking, what is this encounter with Team Cataclysm you three had?" Tristan asked

"Well..." Lyss said "Andrew here was kidnapped by them. We had to sneak into their base and rescue him."

"Oh my that is a problem" Tristan said

"But that's not all." Kai began. "We found just one of their bases. We were able to destroy it and have the members clear out, but one of their leaders got away. The base is Southeast of here if you want to inspect it. They were using the perpetual night of this area to hide the base in plain sight. They're a lot smarter than we give them credit for."  
"This is true. Do you know what brought them here?" Tristan asked

"Darkrai." I responded

"Wh-what!?" Tristan asked in disbelief

"Yeah, they wanted Darkrai. And they got him too. That's the second legendary Pokemon I've witnessed them capture. The first was Celebi in Luzige's area."

"So... they managed to slip past Luzige, too. First Draco's castle, then Celebi in Luzige's area, and Darkrai in my area. What are they up to?" Tristan suddenly went from the warm, caring man he was to a determined one. He seemed determined to get to the bottom of what was going on with Team Cataclysm. "It doesn't take much to slip by me, especially in a place like this where we're in complete darkness, but for them to have actually gotten by Luzige and Draco... I fear... I fear the worst... They are smart. Very smart. They are very good with stealth and covert operations. You three just so happen to to be unfortunate enough to get caught up with what they're doing when they happen to be doing it. No coincidence, I imagine. They must have taken a certain interest in you three, or, at least, one of you. This is bad. We need to learn more about them. They seem to be targeting the rarest and most powerful of Pokemon. The Legendary Pokemon are not meant to be messed with like this. They're meant to create balance within the world. A little secret: The Nova League was not only built to challenge the most powerful trainers, but also to house legendary Pokemon. As you saw, Darkrai was in my area, and Celebi in Luzige's. Draco's castle was constructed around the Light and Dark stones, so that no one could unleash the power of Reshiram and Zekrom unless absolutely necessary. I'm assuming that's why the castle was destroyed, because the stones were hidden deep underneath the castle. Team Cataclysm needs the Legendary Pokemon for something. I will inform the other area leaders of this. That way, they know to protect their respective legendary Pokemon, something, I'm afraid, Draco, Luzige, and myself were not able to do. For now, we should get some sleep. Tomorrow, I will personally escort you three back to HQ. Good night, you three."

Of course, I couldn't sleep that night. I got up, the last few embers of the fire were beginning to die out. I got out and walked off a bit. Tristan's words were still in my head. The whole idea of this entire region being constructed just to house the Legendary Pokemon was absurd. Yet, from what I've seen, it had to be true. There was no other explanation as to why Darkrai and Celebi were there, other than the fact that their homes were being disturbed. I kept trying to think of what other Legendary Pokemon I could possibly encounter. Could I see Kyogre in the Sea Area? Or maybe Manaphy? Or even the mighty Lugia? And in the Arctic Area, which would I see, Regice or Arcticuno? Or maybe even the fearsome Kyurem? And what was housed in the City Area? Mewtwo? Genesect? There was no telling. The legends these Pokemon had associated with them were incredible. It was hard to imagine them all being confined in one place, even harder to imagine them all being captured by Team Cataclysm for Arceaus knows what... It was unimaginable...

"I see you couldn't sleep. What troubles you, Andrew?" Tristan asked as I turned around to face him.

"Its just... I failed at protecting two Legendary Pokemon from Team Cataclysm, possible four if they got ahold of the Light and Dark stones from the castle. And then, the whole idea of there being so many powerful Legendary Pokemon found in one region, especially one that's much smaller than the others found throughout this world. Its all just so..."

"Ludicrous, I know. But you have to believe it. And don't fret about lost Legendary Pokemon. They were not your responsibility. If anyone is to blame, its me and the other Area Leaders. We failed at a big part of our jobs." Tristan explained, trying to comfort me

"I know, but..."

"Its all in good time. When we get back to HQ tomorrow, you must continue with your challenge and keep on fighting Team Cataclysm. Now, you must rest, you do have fourteen other Area Leaders left."

"True, thank you Tristan."

"Good night, Andrew. And remember, you can't change the past, but the future is open to all your choices and decisions."

**A/N: Wow, its been awhile. Sorry for the hiatus, I got really busy and started another story. I hope this chapter is as enjoyable as the older ones were, hopefully even more so! I'm out of class so chapter will be more consistent. Also, I have a prequel planned for a yet to be introduced pivotal character in this story, so look out for that sometime soon (probably)! In the meantime, reviews for this chapter would be great. I have something big planned that I think no one will be expecting from this story, so stay tuned this summer!**


	16. Chapter 14: The Generator

Chapter 14: The Generator

Tristan had woken us up and, of course, it was still dark despite it being about Ten in the morning. He kindly led us back to Nova League HQ, just like he said. There, we parted ways, as Kai, Lyss and I went on to get our next area assignment.

"The Power Plant?" I asked aloud as I read the next place we were heading.

"I guess so. Must be electric type." Kai said

"Well obviously!" Lyss said "Let's get going already!"

* * *

Our trip there was short. The Power Plant was right next to the City Area. There wasn't much there, really. Yes, it was rather large, but it didn't seem to be too occupied. No other trainers were there, either. It made me wonder if we just so happened to be the only group assigned here or if that many people had already lost. Of course, this was just the outside. It was a simple gray, rectangular building that was had windows all along the side. We walked to the doors and opened it up. The inside was a lot more outstanding than the outside. It was one large room. There were tiny generators scattered throughout the room. In each generator was an electric type Pokemon powering it. So these Pokemon were what were behind the electricity throughout the region.

"Alright guys, its time for lunch!" a man said. We looked up and, on the top platform of the room, stood a man. He was tall and lanky with blonde hair that was spiked in all directions. On closer inspection, it appeared as if the ends of his hair were singed. Weird. Anyway, he wore a yellow shirt with two black zigzags down the center and dark gray jeans that seemed to have been well worn in his profession. On top of his head were a pair of goggles that had a huge crack in the right lens and black tennis shoes. As he descended via the lift, he removed a white lab coat and took off a pair of insulated gloves, which he tried to stuff in his pockets.

"Ah hello! You must be the newest challengers! Welcome! The name's Raiden! I run this here plant with my electric type Pokemon! We here keep electricity going for the whole Nova Region!" The man said when he saw us.

"That's sooooooooo cool! I'm Lyss!" Lyss said, showing her excitement

"Yes, it is very interesting. Especially since you power the whole region. I'm Kai" Kai said

"Yeah, I have to agree. The name's Andrew. And yes, we are the new challengers for this week" I said.

"Awesome! Well, we'll get to it as soon as I feed my friends! You're welcome to join us!" He said as he got off the lift and began getting food ready for everyone. He laid it all out and passed sandwiches to the rest of us. "Well, come on, don't be shy, eat! And your Pokemon, they can join us too!"

We sent out our teams and they joined in too. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, hanging out with the Raiden's electric type Pokemon. Just then, a small lizard-like Pokemon came and hopped onto Raiden's shoulder. It was pale yellow with long, black ears with yellow tips. The top of its head, the tip of its tail, and its four feet were also black.

"What's that Pokemon? I don't think I've seen that one before" I said looking at.

"This..." Raiden said as he broke off a piece of his sandwich and fed it to the lizard Pokemon "Is my newest Pokemon, Helioptile."

"Is that a Pokemon from the Kalos region?" Kai asked

"Why, yes it is. I just got him recently! They say that the Kalos Region has some spectacular Pokemon, so I decided to try them out! Maybe, one day I'll see about some more! I know not many trainers here come from Kalos, maybe you'll run into one soon!"

"Well maybe!" Lyss said in her usual excitement "I'd love to meet and fight against someone from a region I haven't been to yet!"

"In the meantime..." Raiden said "Who's ready to battle?"

Lyss and Kai won their badge beautifully. Kai used her Medicham to beat Raiden's Luxray with a well timed Psychic. Kai won using her Pachirisu against Raiden's Emolga. It was a pretty fun battle to watch, and Raiden didn't use that annoying Volt Switch combo Elesa used. Anyway, it was my turn to go up against him. The rules were simple: It was a 3 on 3 battle, whoever has the last remaining Pokemon wins, and the use of items was banned. Simple. I figured I could get this battle over quickly enough. I sent out Bisharp to start things off. Raiden choose to use a Zebstrika.

"Zebstrika, use Flame Charge!" Raiden said. The Pokemon covered itself in flames as it charged right at my Pokemon. Bisharp dodged the flame covered Pokemon and attacked with a Slash from its arm blades.

"Zebstrika, use Wild Charge"

"Bisharp, use Night Slash"

Zebstrika came at Bisharp covered in a cloak of electricity. Bisharp skillfully dodged the attack once again. His blades began to glow a dark purple and he slashed at the Zebstrika again. Zebstrika doubled back in pain. Bisharp was clearly outclassing the other Pokemon.

"Zebstrika, Flame Charge again!"

"Bisharp, finish this with Sucker Punch"

As Zebstrika cloaked itself in flames and charged at Bisharp again, but Bisharp used his attack first. His hand glowed purple as he punched straight through the veil of flames. Zebstrika went down instantly, Bisharp not even getting a scratch on him.

"Well, very good then. Next Pokemon then. Let's go Electivire!" Raiden said as a large yellow humanoid Pokemon with black markings all over its body and two large wire like extensions coming from its back.

"Alright then, Bisharp, use Night Slash"

"Electivire use Thunderpunch!"

Bisharp's blades turned dark purple again as he slashed at the much larger Pokemon. Electivire began to charge up his fist with electricity. He punched right at Bisharp, hitting him head on. Bisharp was sent flying into one of the smaller genarators, nearly breaking it. Bisharp got up and tried to fight back.

"Electivire, use Fire Punch!"

Electivire now cloaked his fist in flames and hit Bisharp again. Bisharp went flying again and, this time, hit the wall. Bisharp, although a very powerful Pokemon, went down. I recalled Bisharp.

"Alright then, let's go Garchomp!"

My shark-dragon Pokemon came out and gave an intimidating glare to the powerful electric Pokemon.

"Garchomp, use Dragon Rush"

"Electivire use Brick Break!"

Electivire's hand began to glow white as he tried to karate chop Garchomp. Garchomp came at Electivire at a high speed. Electivire's attack missed and Garchomp hit him head on with his incredible speed.

"Electivire, use Dig!"

"Garchomp, use Earthquake."

Electivire found a soft spot in the floor of the building and began to dig through it. As he traveled underground, Garchomp hit the ground and produced a powerful shockwave. Electivire pushed through the ground near Garchomp, but barely came up. He was nearly defeated.

"Garchomp, finish this with Dragon Claw"

Garchomp's claw glowed a light blue as he ended this part of the battle. Electivire couldn't escape. Raiden recalled the large electric Pokemon.

"Well then, let's end this battle right now then! Come on Helioptile!"

The small electric lizard leaped off of Raiden's shoulder and its ears spread wide, making it look only slightly more intimidating, which really isn't saying much.

"Um... are you sure about that?" I asked him

"Really sure about this. Helioptile, use Parabolic Charge!"

The small lizard spread its ears wide again and then let loose a massive amount of electricity right at Garchomp. The electricity came at him from all sides. However, when the attack hit, it didn't do anything to Garchomp because of his ground typing.

"Garchomp... just... uh... Dragon Claw"

Garchomp's claws glowed again and he swiped at the Helioptile, causing it to faint instantly.

"Awesome! That was a great match!" Raiden said as he picked up his Helioptile and walked over to me. He handed me the new badge. It resembled an electrical generator with electricity sparking out of it from some sides.

"Well yeah, but, um, why did you use Helioptile if you knew he would lose in one hit?"

"Hey, I gotta train the little guy somehow! And what better way to do it than against a Pokemon as powerful as a Garchomp! Especially since Garchomp has a type advantage! I'm pretty sure the little guy has plenty of potential for greatness!"

"That makes sense, I guess."

"Great! Now... do you three wanna see something really cool?" Raiden asked as Kai and Lyss walked up to congratulate me on my victory.

"Sure!" Lyss said excitedly

"Follow me then" Raiden said as he turned around and went towards the very back wall of the Power Plant. On his way there, he picked up a large bag of Pokemon food and carried it with him. He tapped the wall three times in various places. This caused the wall to open up, revealing a large room with a huge generator in the middle. The room had the gray walls constructed around it, but the ceiling opened up to a beautiful blue sky above.

"WOW!" Lyss said in amaziment "This room is AMAZING!"

"Yeah!" I agreed "It is pretty stunning

"Yes but... What is this room used for?" Kai asked, looking up at the blue sky then down below to the grass.

"Glad you asked! Watch this!" Raiden said as he laid the bag on the ground and opened it up. He poured the contents of it all around and then let out a loud whistle. After waiting a few moments, we saw what he wanted to show us. A large, yellow bird Pokemon soared down. It had a long, thin, orange beak and its feathers was all yellow except at the ends of its wings and tail, which were black. Its feet had three talons on one end and one on the other end. Its head, wings and tail spread outwards in a very sharp, jagged fashion, giving it the appearance of lightning.

"This here is Zapdos! The legendary bird of electricity!" Raiden said as Zapdos landed and began to eat the food that was laid out for him. "He's a really friendly Pokemon!"

"What exactly is he here for?" I asked

"Well, simply put..." Raiden began "My Pokemon and I can't power the whole region at all times. All of them doing this at once combined with using them for battles means we have to rest at some point. Zapdos here agreed to help us out by powering the Plant at night. Essentially, the electricity used at nighttime all comes from Zapdos here!"

"Wow, that is really cool!" Lyss shouted excitedly.

"Yes, very cool indeed. Its a shame we need to take him away from here though" said a cold, female voice no one knew. We all turned around and saw a woman around in her mid-twenties. She wore an all dark blue dress with black gloves that extended to her elbows and black boots. Her long, blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail that reached all the down her back. She carried a black umbrella on her. Most noticeably was her mask. It was half blue and half black. It only covered her eyes, so we could see her condescending smirk, and was shaped like an hourglass on its side. She was one of the Cataclysm Royals.

"You will do no such thing!" Raiden said "I will personally stop you!"

"You see, of dear Area Leader of the Power Plant" the woman said as she let out a little giggle "The problem with not having your Pokemon in their poke balls makes them vulnerable. My team of grunts is taking them all out as we speak so that you have no way of interfering with our plans."

"I'm not letting you of Team Cataclysm do any more damage!" I said "Come on Gardevoir, let's do this!" I sent out my trusty Gardevoir in order to fight of this strange woman from Team Cataclysm.

"I don't think so..." she said, giggling again "Oh Delcatty, sweetie, sing these people to sleep." Next to her appeared an elegant cat Pokemon with cream colored fur and purple ears and collar. It began to create a noise that was hard not to hear. Gardevoir fell asleep on the ground, followed by Kai, then Raiden, Lyss, and even Zapdos. I was struggling to stay awake. I tried as hard as I could, but my eyes began to get heavier and heavier with each passing moment. The woman walked up as I fought to stay awake, but I just couldn't do it. Eventually, I succumbed to the spell of the song and fell asleep.

When I woke up, Zapdos was gone.

**A/N: Well, here's to another chapter! I decided to use a Gen VI Pokemon, so I hope you guys like my subtle advertising (jk). But seriously, I decided to make this fight a little easier just because things are about to get really intense (well, I guess they did with Zapdos and all, but I mean more intense than that!). As usual, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, any feedback is welcome. Also, if you guys are interested, I'm gonna write a prequel soon about an important character, so, if you wanna submit an OC for it, go to my profile and check it out the requirements and example (just saying). Hope you guys enjoy this here new chapter!**


	17. Chapter 15: The Big City

Chapter 15: The Big City

"If anything, you three got done here really fast" Raiden said "So you should go to the City right next to here. Find the Area Leader there and fight him. He's a bit spacey, but Roland is one amazing battler. There's an entrance to the City straight through this handy dandy hidden compartment right here." Raiden smacked a spot on the wall and it opened revealing a hidden doorway.

"Thank you very much, Raiden." Kai said as she entered through the doorway.

"Its no problem" Raiden said. "I need to contact HQ now, it seems we'll be having to either use less power from now on, or we won't have power at night. We'll see. Goodbye you three, and good luck to you all."

* * *

The City was a fantastic place to visit. There were Skyscrapers on all sides, and it all looked really cool and futurisitic. The buildings were all metallic and you could see the electricity running through them as the power moved upwards through a clear cable. It was, overall, a huge place. The thing was, though, there wasn't a soul around. Not a single person was walking around. It was like there was this amazing, technologically advanced city, and no one around to enjoy it, which, in itself takes away from the whole experience of the big city for us.

"Where do you think everyone is?" Lyss asked

"I have no idea... this is strange..." Kai said

"You're telling me..." I responded

We kept on walking around, not running into anyone or anything. It seemed deserted. We rounded the corner and there is when we saw it. A large crowd of black hoodies with white hoods and the upside down hourglass symbol. There were many of them. Maybe around two hundred gathered in that one spot. It was unbelievable. In that one spot were so many Team Cataclysm members. It appeared that they were gathering to hear a speech of sorts. Could it be one from their leaders perhaps?

"Shh..." We heard across the way. On the opposite side of the street, tucked away at the edge of a barely visible ally, was a young man who looked to be in his mid-twenties. His eyes were a dark green and his hair was red and cropped fairly short. He wore faded brown denim jeans and a dark blue shirt. He carried a rather large duffle bag with him. He motioned for us to come over their quickly and try not to be seen by any of the crowd their. We went over as fast as we could. Luckily, their backs were to us.

"Are you Kai, Lyss, and Andrew? The three trainers Raiden said were coming?" the man asked

"Yes" the three of us whispered in unison.

"Good. My name is Roland. I'm the Area Leader of the City. As you can see, this city seems to be inhabited by me and Team Cataclysm members. Not sure how it got to be this bad... guess I spaced out a little too much... man I really gotta stop that, its such a bad habit, ya know? Anyways, where was I... Oh! Right! Those grunts out their have assembled. Apparently they have an important announcement from the teams Second-in-command. I know they have Zapdos, Celebi, and Darkrai. I also learned that they have the Light and Dark Stones, meaning they can summon Reshiram and Zekrom if need be. Luckily they have yet to find the Legendary Pokemon I'm keeping watch over. I guess I hid him really well. Anyways, I guess I should shut up now, it looks like their speaker is here."

And it was true. A man dressed ver differently from any Team Cataclysm member I had ever seen, grunt or royal, walked up onto a stage and approached a microphone. He wore a simple red t-shirt and red sneakers. His jeans were clean, simple blue denim jeans. He wore red fingerless gloves on his hands. But what made him truly different was his mask. The mask was pure white with an intricate flame pattern on it that started from the bottom left corner. There were only two small slits for eyes and no visible mouth. From the back, the mask had a large orange and red mane that reached all the way down his back, giving the appearance that that was his hair, when, in reality, his real hair was somewhere underneath it all. On the forehead of the mask, barely visible from where we were, was the Team Cataclysm Insignia, the upside down hourglass. His overall attire wasn't too terrible. He wasn't terribly old, either, maybe late twenties or early thirties, and his build was fairly lean with some muscle, none of which is very intimidating. But that mask. The mask was truly frightening. That mask made him seem like he was someone to be feared.

"Good evening, fellow members of Team Cataclysm" the man said, speaking into the microphone. I could already tell he was someone who was good with words just from that one sentence. He had spoken it so slyly, yet in a way that grabs your attention no matter what you happen to be doing. Every single one of the two hundred some members immediately ceased what they were doing and looked right at him. He had the attention of everyone present.

"As you all know, I am Red, your second-in-command. Our fearless leader has asked me to come speak to all of you. Now, unfortunately, we have many members missing, but I know that they are in the care of the rest of the Royals. Being that I trust Silver, Sapphire, Diamond, and Black, I can say that the rest of our members are in very capable hands. On to more pressing matters. You all have been called here today. As you know, our plan is already well in motion. As of yesterday, thanks to my lovely colleague, Lady Sapphire, we have acquired the Legendary Bird of Electricity, Zapdos. This is quite a stepping stone for us, because, now, we will be able to generate as much electricity as we need to go through with our plan. As you also know, Lord Diamond has obtained both the Dark and Light stones for us, Count Silver flawlessly captured the legendary Celebi, and Master Black successfully captured Darkrai, although it did come at the cost of our Darkness Area base. Although, some sacrifices, such as one of our best bases, are necessary for our plan to go ahead in full force. As you know, we only need two more of the legendary Pokemon to finish our plan. We know one of them is here in this very city. Hidden amongst the technologically advanced buildings is a powerful Legendary Pokemon that we need to to finish our plan. Our leader is almost done. I know that many of you know this already, but I will say it anyways: All five of our Royals, myself included, are on our way to gaining entrance to the final tournament of this League, as is our leader. Now, many of you have already been eliminated from the tournament, but those of you still in it, we encourage you to keep fighting and try and get in. The more members we have in the final tournament, the better it will be. As soon as the tournament starts, our plan will be in full effect. Now, the informative part of my speech is done. The next part is to be your assignment. We know that there is a Legendary Pokemon in this very city. We task you to find it. With all of you looking, we know that we can find it before the sun sets on this day."

The four of us were so engrossed by his speech that we really had no focus on what was going on. He was someone who had such a way with words. He was intimidating, yet moving somehow. We couldn't focus on anything else. Let alone the face on the trashcan that was staring right at us.

Wait, what?

I looked again and there it was. A pair of beady black eyes and small line for a mouth right there on the trashcan. It was... well it was strange to say the least. But that's when the real trouble began. The face and the trashcan morphed into a tiny purplish-pink blob with that same face on it. It didn't seem like a problem, except, it was. The blob began to let out a loud scream. Every member turned around and looked at the screaming blob.

"Well well" Red said. "It appears as if my Ditto has found some intruders hiding in the alleyway. I believe you all know what to do. Along with your assignment of finding the Legendary Pokemon, you must eliminate the intruders as well. Dismissed."

"Come on then, they'll be looking here first. We have to go, and I mean now." Roland said grabbing Kai and Lyss as he began to run off. I ran right behind him, not looking back at what was behind us. We all ducked behind another building to take cover from the crowd that was following us.

"Well... that was really unexpected" Roland said. "What should we do?"

"I don't know..." Lyss said

"There they are!" a male grunt said as he ran towards us. He sent out a mean looking Weezing as more grunts followed suit and sent out their Pokemon.

"Well then..." Kai said "I guess we need to fight. Come on out Serperior! You too Medicham and Pachirisu!"

"Kai, what are you doing?" I asked

"Sometimes, a fight is unavoidable. In this case, its my turn to fight. You three, though... I'll be fine, just go on."

And with that, we left our gypsy friend behind.

We kept running and running. We really didn't have much of a choice when it was two hundred to four and it didn't seem like we would be have much luck due to their large numbers. Kai was very brave to battle them while we escaped.

I could hear more of them coming, so I opened the first door I saw and ran right in. The only problem with that was that now I had just separated myself from Lyss and Roland.

"Looks like I got myself in a real mess this time..." I said as I heard the sound of numerous Team Cataclysm grunts run right past. "Let's see where I ended up."

I looked around the building I was in. It seemed like a really small place even though it was in such a big city. I thought I had gone into a really big building, but this place was tiny. There was a desk with tons of papers scattered all over it and on the floor, too. It looked as if no one had been there in a long while. I went to the desk and started opening the drawers to see if I could find some way to contact my friends, but I didn't find anything. What I did find, though, was what lead me onward. There, right underneath the top of the desk, was a button. I pushed the button and a section of the wall behind me opened up to a massive glass elevator. I stepped in and hit the top floor button. I figured I could see all the chaos around me if I made it to the top. I also thought it would end up being a good place for me to lay low for awhile until things calmed down.

The elevator took me up and up and up. I could see the various floors as I passed by them, each dark and deserted with papers scattered everywhere, much like the first floor. The elevator dinged and I stepped out to what seemed to be a lab. There were microscopes and test tubes all along several tables with more papers scattered all over. I picked up one of the papers and read a long complicated equation on it. However, none of this was able to capture my attention more than what was in the back.

At the very back of the dark, abandoned lab, was a large tube bigger than me. It was lit up and had a strange green liquid flowing through it. But what was in the tube was what was truly amazing.

It had a metallic purple body and seemed very insect-like in appearance. It had two large, red eyes and a vent-like mouth on its saucer shaped head. Its arms and legs were thin and pointed. On its back was a powerful looking canon mounted on its back.

"Genesect" I whispered as I saw the Legendary Pokemon. It seemed to be in a state of suspended animation, so it wouldn't be attacking me anytime soon. But still... Genesect... The Pokemon that's supposed to be the perfect blend of technology and Pokemon... right here.

I looked at the shelves next to the tube and there were four disk drives. One light blue, one light red, one light yellow, and one white. I knew that Genesect was known to power itself up using disk drives, so these must've been those. I picked all four of them up and pocketed them. I had no idea why, I just felt compelled to. As soon as I pocketed the last one, the white one, I heard the elevator ding and open up.

"So, you came up here did you?" asked the all too familiar sly voice that could capture the mass of people from earlier. I turned around to face him. There was that mask again. That mask was now forever etched into my mind as something to fear. "Just look out the window. We have your two friends. They put up a fight, but we did get them. I do think the boss will be happy to hear about our new captives, however, you we really just seem to find as an obstacle. The gypsy knows all about the myths involving every Legendary Pokemon, and the other... well, I think the boss will be happy with her. As for you, Roland, take care of him."

"As you say, sir" said Roland as he stepped out from behind Red.

"I'll be back for Genesect as soon as he's done for" Red said as he stepped back into the elevator and went down.

"So, you were working for Team Cataclysm the whole time... And here I thought you Area Leaders were people I could respect" I spat at Roland

"Team Cataclysm has my best interests at the moment" he said "But as of right now, think of this battle as your Area Leader challenge against me. Come on out Skarmory." Roland sent out a large bird made entirely of steel with sharp silver and red wings.

"Alright then, if this is how its going to be... Let's go Ampharos."

"Skarmory, use Steel Wing"

"Ampharos, use Charge!"

Ampharos began to charge up electricity within him as Skarmory swooped down at him, his wings now a dark silver color.

"Now, Discharge Ampharos!"

As Skarmory got closer and the attack was about to connect, Ampharos let loose all the electricity he had just stored up. Skarmory fell to the ground, struggling to get up now.

"Finsih this up Ampharos, use Charge Beam"

Ampharos fired the powerful beam of electricity at the grounded Skarmory. Skarmory went down once again, unable to get back up.

"Well then. You are just as good as the other Area Leaders have said. Return Skarmory. I think this battle will be interesting indeed. Go Ferrothorn." A strange, metal plant Pokemon covered with metal thorns and with three large vines that ended in claw-like extensions materialized.

"Can't you see that this is wrong? I'm going to defend Genesect from you and the rest of Team Cataclysm if it kills me. I'm not going to make the mistakes I made with Celebi or Darkrai or Zapdos. Ampharos, use Thunderbolt."

Ampharos let a large amount of electricity loose and directed it right at the Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn shook it off as it if were nothing.

"Ferrothorn use Power Whip." The middle vine of Ferrothorn's glowed a bright purple as it brought it down with incredible force, hitting Ampharos dead on. "Finish with an Iron Head." Ferrothorn then rammed right at Ampharos with its head glowing silver. I had to recall Ampharos now.

"Fine then, I'll beat whatever you throw at me with only my next Pokemon, just you watch. Come on out Blaziken! Let's finish this for good!"

"Ferrothorn, Iron Head"

"Blaziken, this one's easy, Blaze Kick"

As Ferrothorn's silver headbutt came at Blaziken, Blaziken cloaked his legs in flames. He gave a swift kick right on Ferrothorn's head. Despite some minor injuries from Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs ability, Blaziken was mostly unharmed. Ferrothorn, on the other hand, was down in one shot because of its unfortunate double weakness to fire-type moves.

"I see, so you're still fighting, and fighting hard. Return Ferrothorn. I just want you to know this though: Team Cataclysm will get Genesect. Even if I lose, there are many others out there, and I'm sure you don't have enough revives and potions to fight all of us. Go Magnezone." Roland sent out a large, floating Pokemon. It looked like a flying saucer with a magnet on each end. There was one large eye in the center with two smaller eyes close to the magnets. It had an antenna on top that glowed with electricity.

"Come on Blaziken, another Blaze Kick!"

"Magnezone, use Zap Canon"

Magnezone sent out a large blue ball of powerful electricity and shot it right at Blaziken. Blaziken took his flame cloaked legs and broke through the attack, hitting Magnezone.

"Magnezone, attack with Thunder"

"Blaziken use Flare Blitz!"

Blaziken cloaked himself in completely in flames and began to charge at Magnezone. Magnezone let loose the largest bolt of electricity I have ever seen. It hit Blaziken dead on, but he kept going. He rammed right into Magnezone. When the flames cleared, I could tell that the recoil damage from the attack combined with the intensity of Magnezone's attack combined to deal a great amount of damage. Magnezone was having trouble staying afloat. Both of our Pokemon were now really worn out.

"Blaziken, finish this with Sky Uppercut"

Blaziken did a fierce uppercut with an incredible amount of force. Magnezone hit the wall. Roland recalled it. I recalled Blaziken, seeing how tired he was from the last two battles.

"That's enough. We're finished here" Roland said. "You win."

Roland walked up to me. As he got right in front of me, I felt a sharp jab in my stomach.

"Now listen to me and listen to me well" Roland whispered into my ear "Don't worry about your friends, I'll help them. We're going to have to let them get Genesect, its the only way to track what they're doing. I'm sorry, I am so very sorry I have to do this to you, you are an excellent trainer. Never forget that. I'll see you soon."

I felt a something small fall into my pocket and then a powerful blow to the back of my neck, and then I was out.

* * *

I woke up by the a fire in the forest.

"I see, you're finally awake. Good." said a familiar voice. I turned and saw the familiar face of the young spiky red-haired teen I had met once before.

"M-Michael?" I said as I tried to sit up. My neck and gut were still really sore from the blows Roland had delivered to me.

"Yeah, glad you're okay. I had to wait for Team Cataclysm to clear out of there with Genesect before I came and got you. You've been out since Tuesday. Its Saturday now. You probably need to eat something. Here." he explained all of this as he prepared a bowl of soup and handed it to me. I gladly took it and began to eat it.

"Do you know what happened to my friends? Kai... and Lyss..."

"Captured. They're at the mercy of Team Cataclysm now."

"Now here's my next question..." I said as I finished the last of my soup. "Will you help me get them back?"

"I've been traveling alone up until now, but never been far behind you, and even in some cases, as it was with the Forest and the City, not too far ahead of you. I will help you get your friends back. I've dealt with Cipher in my home region of Orre, I'm pretty sure I can take these guys."

"Thank you Michael..." I said, weakly, partially due to the state I was in, partially due to losing my close friends. I reached into my pocket and felt what Roland had dropped in there. It was his badge. I took it out and examined it. It was pure silver and had an image of a city on the horizon. I took out my badge case and put it right next to the Generator Badge.

"Sure" he said. "Now, get some more rest. We'll leave back to HQ in the morning, we still have more Area Leaders to challenge while we search for Team Cataclysm."

"I heard that they're going to put their plan into full effect once one of them wins the Tournament at the end of this competition."

"Well, looks like we just have to win it all then."

**A/N: So, here's the latest chapter in my story. I hope you like it. I really tried to make this chapter really good, because, well, its important for the overall story. In other news, I'm trying to think of a way to introduce the Fairy type (as much as I don't like it... like seriously, couldn't they call it something cooler? I mean, Light type is still a great option!), so bear with me here. I really hope you guys like this chapter. Also, I want honest reviews, please, no stupid reviews that have nothing to do with my writing or the story. Other than that, any feedback is greatly appreciated.**

_**End of Part One**_


	18. Chapter 16: The Final Badge

_**Part 2: The Tournament **_

Chapter 16: The Final Badge

Things haven't been going well for me. I know I haven't been writing in my journal lately, but its really hard to write in it when everything went to hell a few weeks back. Eleven weeks its been since I've written in here. That's when I lost Kai and Lys... I only had five Area Badges at that time: Fang, Web, Night, Generator, and Industry. I know, I should've kept a better chronicle of the other Area Leader challenges, but I got so caught up with trying to find my two friends... my two best friends...

Michael and I have both taken to wearing a brown cloak over our clothes. As time went on, it moved from fall to winter, so we figured these cloaks would keep us warm. They also helped us travel a little more undetected. Which is good thing, considering we were trying to sneak around and find Team Cataclysm. We really didn't have much luck on that. I also lost my glasses in the incident in the City Area, but its fine because Gardevoir has helped me to see better using her psychic powers. I don't even need my glasses anymore.

Speaking of Gardevoir; as I was battling the Sky Area Leader (and yes, we really did have to climb up and up and up until we were literally standing on top of a platform right above the clouds), I used Gardevoir, and the strangest thing happened. As the Area Leader, a very tomboyish woman in her early 30s by the name of Zepheryn, skillfully commanded her Altaria, Gardevoir let loose a powerful gust of wind that shimmered and had a pinkish tint to it. It defeated the Altaria in a single blow. I learned that the move was called Fairy Wind, and that Gardevoir is actually a dual typed Pokemon: part Psychic, part Fairy type. Fairy type. Not a type I would see myself using, but it turned out that that move, Fairy WInd, also of this new Fairy type, was able to land a supper-effective hit on the Dragon/Flying type Altaria. If I had known that Gardevoir could use moves super-effective against Dragon types a long time ago, I think my battle with Draco would have been a lot easier. But that's a thing of the past.

The past.

Something I don't like to dwell on much anymore. Guess that's why I haven't been chronicling my journey as well as I promised myself and my little sister I would. Kayla really looks up to me. She's only four, and there is Jacob between us at twelve years old, but she always tells Mom and Dad she wants to be like me. Makes me happy that one of my siblings actually likes me. Jacob, on the other hand, is somewhat of a recluse, but I know he's gonna make something of himself one day. He's a real smart kid. In fact, I just received word from Mom and Dad that Jacob started his journey out in Johto three days ago. He chose Totodile as his starter. This was new for us, considering Skylar and Greg both started out in Unova, Hanna in Sinnoh, and me in Hoenn. I guess that is a good thing, though, meaning Jacob will have a completely different journey from the rest of us. Anyways, as I was saying, I promised Kayla that I would keep a journal so, when she's older, she could read all my adventures here. I never thought I would skip over the majority of my Area Leader challenges... Although, honestly, they all were typically the same: three on three battle, I'd knock out two of the Area Leader's Pokemon, they'd knock out two of mine, then, as we both had our last Pokemon out, I'd conclude it closely, but spectacularly and win the badge. That was basically the formula. I know they're all tough trainers, but hey, when it came down to it, even though I did enjoy the challenges quite a bit, it'd all be a little monotonous for Kayla to read.

Michael, on the other hand... wow, that kid can battle. He's only 15, two years younger than me, and yet, he is definitely the better of us. In all his Area Leader challenges, he would use a single Pokemon. His team is pretty amazing too. He has an Ursaring, an Espeon, a Walrein, a Flygon, and an Electrode. I've never seen his sixth and final Pokemon. He says he only keeps it with him to undo what a villainous team named Cipher did to it. He said he vowed not to use it until he could figure out a way to fix what happened to it. I think its strange, but, then again, given his battling skills, he doesn't even need a sixth Pokemon.

Michael had gotten a few Badges that I hadn't gotten, and vice versa, so we've also been working double to try and accommodate for that. I got a chance to see Tristan and Draco again as Michael needed to battle them. I also had to tell them what happened to Kai and Lyss. I also had to go to the Glacier and Volcano regions, where Michael had already won the Heat and Freeze Badges, respectively. Although, our little revisits weren't simply to battle Area Leaders that the other needed. Oh no, it was much more than that. We also went to those areas because those are areas that had high Team Cataclysm activity. Of course, the Castle is still in ruins, but we had a good look around in the rubble. It brought back some horrible memories for me, of course, especially when we searched through a spot and I had found Marcus's tattered hat. I couldn't help but tear up. We also found the type of bomb used and that the Light and Dark stones were, in fact, taken from underneath the castle. The Darkness Region, as much as I hated going back there, was also pretty important to our search. We returned to that abandoned base where I was held captive under Darkrai's spell and found some documents that led us to other bases. Of course, these other bases weren't as helpful, but we still got the chance to kick some Cataclysm Grunt ass while we were there.

Now the truly interesting parts come in the Glacier and Volcano regions. Michael informed me that, while he was in the Volcano, Lord Diamond was successfully able to capture Moltres. While he was on the Glacier, Michail witnessed Lady Sapphire capturing Arcticuno. Since I was there when Lady Sapphire took Zapdos, this means that Team Cataclysm has all three of the Legendary Birds. When Michael, too, realized this, I noticed he went pale and had a cold sweat. He kept checking that sixth, unused poke ball on his belt. I noticed it wasn't just any ordinary poke ball, though. Michael had, on his very being, a Master Ball. And in that Master Ball was this mysterious sixth Pokemon of his that I knew nothing about. Being that it is in a Master Ball though, I concluded that it must be a very, very powerful Pokemon.

I keep going over it in my head: "Celebi, Darkrai, Reshiram, Zekrom, Genesect, Arcticuno, Zapdos, Moltres." Those were the Legendary Pokemon in Team Cataclysm's possession. Eight. Eight all powerful Pokemon that are from the myths and tales that I was told by my parents, who learned them through their parents, and so on. One of these Pokemon alone in the hands of Team Cataclysm could cause massive destruction... but eight of them... there's no telling what they were up to.

Anyways, I realize I've been going off on several tangents in this entry. Guess that's what happens when I don't write for eleven weeks... But then again, the search and investigation of Team Cataclysm has been consuming a lot of my time...

Anyways, today was, in fact a very special day. I guess you can say I did it. Or, Michael and I did it. We both beat the final Area Leader. Lana was definitely a tough one to fight. Don't let her sweet smile and awesome body fool you, she's definitely worthy of being the Ocean Area Leader.

Michael and I had been traveling around the beach for a few days now, not really bothering with much due to how we needed to find the last Area Leader. We walk a little ways onto a small island and, well that's when she caught our eyes. All we say was a streak of long blonde hair fly on past us on a surfboard. She got out of the water and onto the little island we were standing on and that's when we got a really good look at her. She was super tanned and really toned. She didn't have any trouble showing it off either, given that she was wearing a pretty tiny orange bikini with blue floral patterns. Both Michael's and my own mouth dropped as we saw this gorgeous woman, who was maybe only a year or two older than me.

"Hey boys" she said rather flirtatiously "you looking for the Area Leader here?"

"Y-yes" I stammered. Please remember, I'm terrible, TERRIBLE, with girls. I was already blushing and I could barely even speak now.

"Good" she giggled "I'm Lana, and I'll be your opponent today." Our mouths dropped even further. Who would've thought that the Ocean Area Leader was a flirtatious surfer babe?

Michael won flawlessly, again. All he had to do was use his Espeon. His one Pokemon was able to take out her Floatzel, Kingler, and Sharpedo. I will never understand how he does it, but he always manages these flawless victories, never losing a single Pokemon, and, even when at a complete type disadvantage, as was the case with the Sharpedo, still manages to get his Pokemon out with little to no damage whatsoever. I was the opposite. I almost always came down to the last straw. Today was no exception to that at all.

I started things off with my Garchomp. She sent out a blue eel like Pokemon with orange circular spots and a large mouth with sharp looking teeth. Garchomp, being shark-like in nature, dived into the water after it.

"Okay Huntail, use Crunch!" the eel Pokemon shot right at my Garchomp and sunk his teeth in deep into his arm. I could see everything through the crystal clear ocean water.

"Garchomp get him off with Dragon Claw!" Garchomp's claw began to glow a green color as he swiped at Huntail, effectively getting him off, but not without receiving a lot of damage from the Crunch attack.

"Huntail, use Aqua Tail!" Huntail turned around and swung his tail, sending a powerful pulse of water that hit Garchomp and sent him back a few feet.

"Garchom, Dragon Rush!" Garchomp become surrounded in the green aura and shot at Huntail through the water like a torpedo. He reached an incredibly fast speed and hit Huntail hard. Huntail got back up , badly injured, but ready to fight again.

"Huntail, use Ice Fang!"

"Garchomp, use Crunch"

Huntail's teeth were covered in ice as he charged at Garchomp. He chomped down on Garchomp's arm again as Garchomp bite down hard on Huntail's tail. Garchomp eventually won the battle of fangs and tossed it all the way across the water. Lana recalled him.

"Let's go Gorebyss!" she said as she sent out a long, pink eel-like Pokemon with two purple seashells on its chest, somewhat reminiscent of a mermaid.

"Gorebyss, use Hydro Pump!"

"Garchom, Dragon Rush!"

Gorebyss let losoe a a poweful blast of water at Garchomp. Garchomp, cloaked in the green aura, shot through the water like a torpedo again. He went straight through the blast of water, charging right at the eel mermaid. Garchomp hit Gorebyss dead on, and, like Huntail, badly damaged her.

"Gorebyss, use Whirlpool!" Gorebyss began to swim around Garchomp. She kept swimming faster and faster until Garchomp was trapped in a powerful whirlpool that he couldn't get out of. He tried to swim out, but couldn't. The whirlpool was just too strong.

"Now, use Psychic Gorebyss!" Gorebyss shot out a powerful wave of psychic energy at the whirlpool. Garchomp took major damage from it and the whirlpool combined. He still couldn't escape.

"Garchomp, use Dragon Rush once more!" Garchomp swam around in the whirlpool, and then shot out in the direction of Gorebyss, cloaked in the green aura again. He hit Gorebyss again and used the speed he gained from the attack to escape the whirlpool. Lana recalled her Gorebyss. Garchomp got back on land, exhausted, but still willing to fight.

"Let's get this over with then" She said "Let's go Cloyster!" Lana sent out a Pokemon that appeared to be a small black ball with eyes surrounded by a strong, spikey purple shell.

"Garchomp, use Earthquake!"

"Cloyster, use Aurora Beam!"

As Garchomp went to hit the ground to cause a massive earthquake, he was hit by a powerful rainbow colored beam. Garchomp, already being pretty weak, went down instantly. I recalled him.

"Alright then, go Bisharp!"

Bisharp got out and assumed his normal, calm demeanor. He readied himself for any attack I would give him the order to attack.

"Bisharp, use Night Slash"

"Cloyster, use Iron Defense!"

Bisharp's blades glowed purple as he rushed right at Cloyster. Cloyster closed his shell and began to glow a deep silver color. Bisharp slashed at Cloyster. He kept slashing and slashing, but never could get passed the near impenetrable shell that Cloyster had, especially when it was boosted to be even harder to get past.

"Bisharp, use Iron Head!"

"Cloyster, use Protect!"

"Bisharp's head glowed silver as he tried to headbutt Cloyster, but Cloyster created a powerful forcefield around himself. When Bisharp headbutted the forcefield, he was sent flying back, never getting past Cloyster's powerful defense.

"Fine then, we'll have to end this in one hit then. Bisharp, use Guillotine!"

Bisharp charged at Cloyster, his blades glowing a light blue. Cloyster jumped out of the way than then closed his shell around Bisharp's head.

"Cloyster, hit him with a Water Pulse!"

I couldn't see what happened in the shell, but I know it wasn't good. I saw a large amount of water come from within the shell and crash down all around Bisharp. Bisharp fell to his knees, and Cloyster unclamped his shell and got right back into the water. Bisharp was really damaged now.

"Cloyster, finish this off with another Water Pulse!"

Cloyster sent out a powerful ring of water right at Bisharp. Bisharp, being exhausted, couldn't move. It hit him dead on. Bisharp slowly sank to the ground. I recalled him.

"Alright then, go Blaziken! Let's win this!"

I knew it was a stretch, using the Fire-type Blaziken against the Water-type Area Leader, but something about using Blaziken to help me win what could possibly be the last badge I will ever receive seemed right. He's been with me since the very beginning. I also thought that Blaziken's Fighting-type would be able to overpower Cloyster's Ice-type.

"Blaziken, use Sky Uppercut!"

"Cloyster, Iron Defense!"

Blaziken went in to deliver a powerful uppercut, but Cloyster closed his shell and began glowing silver again. Blaziken sent Cloyster into the air with his attack.

"Cloyster, use Water Pulse!"

"Blaziken, use Brave Bird!"

Cloyster shot another circle of water. Blaziken began to glow blue as he charged at Cloyster. He broke through the Water Pulse and hit Cloyster head on, without his shell protecting him. Cloyster fell to the ground, still able to fight.

"Blaziken, use Brave Bird again!"

"Cloyster, Protect!"

Blaziken glowed blue and charged at Cloyster again. Cloyster closed his shell and created another forcefield around himself. Blaziken tried and tried, but couldn't break through it. Blaziken eventually tired of attacking in a futile assault and jumped back. Both Pokemon were getting to be pretty tired now.

"Cloyster, one more Water Pulse!"

"Blaziken, Sky Uppercut! Let's finish this!"

Cloyster sent another ring of water at Blaziken. Blaziken dodged it and threw Cloyster up in the air and delivered a powerful uppercut right in between the two sides of Cloyster's shell. When both Pokemon landed, Cloyster was out cold. Lana recalled him.

"You both fought soooo well!" Lana said as she approached Michael and myself. I started to blush again. I had almost forgotten that my opponent was a cute girl in a bikini. Guess I had just really gotten into the battle. She handed me the badge and kissed me on the cheek, causing me to blush even harder. She giggled.

"Th-thank you" I stammered, trying my best to keep my composure. Wasn't successful at all.

"Sure thing boys" she giggled "And, since this is the last week of the Area Leader portion, let me be the first to congratulate you both on winning every against every single Area Leader!" she said excitedly. She kissed my cheek again, I'm assuming as congratulations for making it through the whole thing, making me blush even more.

"Just so you two know, the tournament check in is at the end of this week. I know the numbers have decreased quite a bit since the beginning. I know I personally beat at least two hundred trainers here!" Lana giggled. She really was a great trainer. Probably the toughest Area Leader I fought. But still... two hundred trainers knocked out because of her... wow."

"How many trainers do you think are left?" Michael asked

"Oh, I dunno know..." she said, with an expression of wonder on her face "Hmmm I'd say less than fifty."

"Wow... from one thousand to less than fifty trainers left... and We're two of them..." I said in wonder

"That's right!" Lana exclaimed "that means you two are really exceptional!"

She was right. I never though of myself as a great trainer, but she was right. If this competition started with the top one thousand trainers, and now there were less than fifty of us, that meant that Michael and I were in top percentage of trainers worldwide. That's strange to me, considering I've never actually won any of the official Pokemon League tournaments. Hell, I'm still in shock that I even received the invitation the first place.

Michael and I said goodbye to Lana. She managed to kiss my cheek again, and, yet again, make me blush. I don't know why she kept doing that...

Anyways, Michael and I are off to the Nova League HQ. We were definitely in for a challenge. We didn't know how far Team Cataclysm made it into the tournament, but I knew we had at least Lord Diamond, Count Silver, Master Black, Lady Sapphire, Red, and their mysterious leader to deal with. In all our traveling and researching Team Cataclysm, Michael and I still never learned about their leader. Not even a gender, a name, a hair color. Nothing. We needed to be on top of our game for this. What could be fate of the world depended on us. This has more more nervous than being around Lana...

One we get back, Michael and I intend to research about the remaining contestants. Not really what Pokemon they have, because that could be considered cheating, but more like if any of them have any involvement with Team Cataclysm, so we could make sure who we knew we needed to beat. This really was a lot, but its what we need to do if we're to stop Team Cataclysm and save Kai and Lyss and all the Legendary Pokemon they have.

**A/N: Yes, I put a time skip in. I hope you guys don't mind, but I really never received any Area Leaders, and so I just decided to progress the plot. Big things are coming soon! Be prepared! As always, I appreciate any reviews, but flames are really unappreciated... Anyways, enjoy!**


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